Thanks to the wonderful people at the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, there will be cheese on Mars!!! I have successfully made mozzarella cheese out of powdered milk, ghee, rennet, lecithin and citric acid - all items which are 'legal' under sim rules (unlike cheese itself, which requires refrigeration). OK, it won't satisfy your jones for Humboldt Fog, but it tastes like cheese and it melts on your pizza, and that goes a long, long way when it comes to crew morale. Not only that, but the leftover whey is a great starting point for soup or bread.

You might be under the mistaken impression that there are more important issues than cheese, such as, say, safety or science. But no. As they say in kindergarten classes around the world:

The Cheese Stands Alone.

Amen.

A quick update on the party: I'll be having it on Friday the 13th (oooh) rather than Thursday the 12th. Too many people complained about having to party on a 'school night'. Wimps.

We just finished three days of Wilderness First Aid training, a field trip to Upheaval Dome (a nearby impact crater in Canyonlands National Park), and the handover to the next crew at MDRS. I'm tired, OK??

Next stop: a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. Next next stop: The Arctic!! I probably won't do much blogging between now and then, but come back at the end of April for my first blog from the North Pole (or damn close). In the meantime, here's a photo: