Reaching Hanksville, UT.

After a long 1,600 miles trip from Grand Forks, North Dakota we safely reached Hanksville, Utah a small 200 people town where we will base our operations.
Yesterday we drove 500 miles, after picking up Fabio at the Denver Airport, many of them crossing the mountains in Colorado. There was snowing heavily and driving conditions were bad so I was too tired to write, but after a restful night we started unpacking and preparing the equipment.



This afternoon the Crew 61 will arrive from Salt Lake City and we will meet for first time. They will be supporting our testing at the MDRS. Also, Paul Graham, MDRS engineering specialist helped us to hook up our computers with Internet and will bring us later to the Hab to leave the compressor, cables, filters and set up the generator which will provide the power to conduct the space suit tests.



As you get close to the area, the landscape turns extra-terrestrial. The soil turns red and the mountains start to loose vegetation. The features look very Mars-like and I can see why the MDRS was built here. The photos don’t quite make justice to the place. It is beautiful and intriguing at the same time. It is going to be an amazing week and I am ready to start setting up everything. Ana put today all cameras, video and radios batteries at full charge so everything is ready.

Now I am writing this blog at the top of one of the mountains where, as crazy as it may sound, we have wireless Internet coverage!

In a few minutes we are descending to prepare some of the equipment we are leaving at the Hab so I have to close by now. More to come tomorrow!

Pablo de Leon.