If it's not one thing, its twenty-five others. That seems to be a common theme around MDRS. Today began with preparations for the highly anticipated switch over to the diesel generator. The crew continued work on the shelter designed to protect it from the elements. Designed to be fairly simple as it is only a temporary solution, it is simply four metal posts and a slanted roof. Those four posts are buried in the ground roughly eighteen inches. After three posts were put in with a great deal of ease, the fourth one hit rock. After deciding that the rock was too large to work around, it was decided that the best path was through the rock. After Jason and Kevin took many swings at the rock with the sledge hammer and rock hammer, Dennis found the spade. Kevin and Ryan proceeded to spend the better part of an hour hacking away the rock piece by piece, until the post could be buried.

At 12:30, after Amy, Daniel and Jason left on EVA 9, Don Foutz arrived with the power adapter for the diesel generator. An hour later the diesel was up and running. The diesel was tested by loading it as much as possible, and it responded well (aside from the unsightly black smoke cloud).

EVAs 9 and 10 performed the third geology and fourth geology RST missions respectively. On the former EVA, Amy, Daniel and Jason hiked in from the ATV path to Tank Wash. On the latter EVA, Dennis, Kevin and Ryan hiked to the top of Phobos Peak, taking samples on the way back in to the Hab. Today was the first day that any of the EVAs had any difficulty with the heat.

Tonight a very weary crew was in the process of cooking dinner and preparing reports, when the Hab experienced a brown out. Almost immediately the diesel generator could be heard sputtering and struggling to run. The crew quickly ran outside, unplugging everything along the way. As they arrived outside, sparks were seen shooting out of the exhaust on the diesel engine. The exhaust shaft was also glowing a very bright red hot. The diesel generator was immediately shut off. After a few field checks, the crew still does not know what caused this issue. This most recent in a rapidly growing list of problems with the diesel generator does not help the crews confidence in its ability to function as the Habs primary power source. Needless to say, the crew has switched back to Lil Genny for the remainder of the night. Tomorrow the crew will attempt to figure out the problem with the diesel generator.

It had been hoped that the diesel generator situation would have passed by now, giving the crew more time to work on other projects, but this no longer appears to be the case. The power system replacement will continue to be the crews top priority until it is officially resolved. All remaining effort is being split up between the RST tele-science missions and the PSUMS rover.