July 9, 2003

The weather on Devon Island has not been this good since 1999. Base camp is now dry and dusty and working conditions are excellent. Morale is great and Internet communication has been established.

Later this afternoon we are expecting three new arrivals to camp and one departure bringing our total to 18 people. Arriving today are Dr. Rainer Effenhauser a Flight Surgeon at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Stephen Hoffman from Science Applications International Corporation/NASA Johnson Space Center and John Parnell from the University of Aberdeen. William Fox an independent writer was to arrive today but has been delayed and will may arrive this Saturday. Leaving will be field assistant Sandy Salluviniq.

Today also marks an important event in the field campaign. Once Rainer Effenhauser and Stephen Hoffman arrive they will join Principal Investigator Pascal Lee and Deputy Base Camp Manager Joe Amarualik and fly to Cape McBain where they will then drive the Mars Institute's MARS-1 Humvee Rover across Devon Island to base camp. The journey is expected to take between one and two days, perhaps three days depending on the conditions. They will have two All Terrain Vehicles (ATV's) with them to escort them. The rover is a mobile all-terrain long-distance roving laboratory from which researchers can conduct scientific field work on Devon Island.

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