3 Days to Go

Final Report.....complete!
Executive Summary.....complete!
Executive Summary Video... complete!
Final Presentation..... 90% complete!

I can breathe again!!

Since I completely dropped the blogging ball last week, here's a little summary about what happened. The whole week, we focused intently on the team project report. The dedicated team members who stayed here 2 weekends ago were able to use the CHARM model to select the best mission to achieve our scientific objective - Mars Sample Return. Out of four potential mission scenarios, our model calculated that the optimal mission would be the short-duration mission with 4 humans, rovers, and robotic helpers. Last Monday we finished the third phase of the project which was to analyze the selected mission from scientific, technical, economic, and political perspectives. Last Tuesday at 3pm all content was due. Wednesday through Saturday we edited, and edited, and edited some more. Saturday the report was due at 5:30pm. Since the only people who could really finish it off were two editors, one IT rep and one designer, I focused on the Executive Summary that day.

That night (last Saturday night), we had a talent show! I was really impressed that people still had energy to perform and entertain after such an intense week with very little sleep. The show consisted of a magic show, a freak show, stand up comedy, a Martial Arts demo, a performance by the "Astronots" (our SSP band), a Salsa performance, and a Tango performance. It was a great way to decompress.

Sunday, we received comments about our report which had to be incorporated by Monday at 7pm. I came in at 6pm on Sunday evening to start incorporating changes. Then I worked on the Executive Summary until something like 1am. That may sound late, but there are many people on my team and the other teams who regularly work until 4am or even all night. Monday I came in early and finished the Executive Summary with Rohan, our designer, at 5:30pm. At 6:45pm, our team submitted both the Final Report and Executive Summary - 15 minutes ahead of the deadline! Now I am free! A small team is working on the final presentation which will be tomorrow (Thursday, Sept 8).

Yesterday we had our team picnic at the park downtown. It was excellent! The weather was absolutely perfect. We got to the park at 2pm and our Katarina (our TA) and some other helpers brought a huge spread of bread, cheese, meat, fruit, chips, cookies, and chocolate. I immensely enjoyed the meal. Then one of the 3 Americans on our team taught the Europeans to play American football which was really entertaining. I walked over to the cafe around the corner with some of the guys and we all got toffee coffee - mmmmm. The day really could not have been more perfect. We walked back as the sun was beginning to set. Later that night, we had dinner in the common room. When an Italian announces they are making pasta... you have no choice but to stay... it is soooooo good! We had pasta for dinner and ice cream with nutella for dessert.

Today our presentation team rehearsed for the second time. After we gave feedback, the non-presenters had a little down time. In 30 minutes we are having a meeting about the closing ceremony which is Friday. Last week we had a meeting about checkout procedures. Things are really starting to wrap up here. We have a little over two days left in Graz. I have started reflecting about this whole experience more and more, but I will save those thoughts for another post.