February 13^th 1999

I had to get up earlier today, to help the Team get the rover off of the truck and into the field. But to my surprise they were not ready and they had to do some things before t hey could get it going. I decided to go back to town and sleep until they needed me to help them. I told them to give me a call when they were ready. And of course about an hour later I got a call and had to go out there. I gave Jamie a call back at h er motel and told her to get ready cause we have to go out there and help them. I picked her up and we were on our way. We got there just in time to help out.

Jamie filmed us while we pushed the guy up the rocky hill. We spent the rest of the day taki ng pictures, doing journals, and making sure the live video link was still up. The Rover did many things. They tested the Arm, the movements and the pan tilt head. Quite a productive day for the team. One of the things I did was I went back to the RV to make sure the encoder was doing its job and I made the mistake of asking if they needed me to bring anything back up to the hill. Anne said that they needed the monitor that they use to see if the cameras on the Rover are working properly. I debated the task because I was going to ride my bike up there. I decide to try it. The monitor had a big strap on it so I strapped it on and took off. When I got there Cesar told me that they needed a 60 pound rock about 75 yards away and they needed someone t o get it for them. I laughed with them.

That is about all for today. Tomorrow is our day off so I won't be reporting any particulars on the Marsokhod. The Field Test Team is planning on going out to Death Valley tomorrow. Jamie and I are going to go to the Big City tomorrow. It will be nice to get out of the desert and to some civilization. I will be reporting more Monday. Bye