Generator/Electricity:

China Special:
Voltage: 222 V
Hobbs meter reading: 842.0 hours

Fuel Status (as of 20:30):

Diesel:

Quantity: 64 gal (US liquid) = 242.3 L remaining (gal = gallons, L=liters)

Consumed: 5gal = 18.9 L

Propane Tank:

Reading: 68% (170 gal / 250 gal) = (643.5 L / 946.4 L)

Consumed: 0 gal = 0 L

Gasoline:

Quantity: 59.8 gal = 226.4 L

Consumed: 0 gal = 0 L

Oil:

Quantity remaining: 6.2 quarts = 5.9 L

Water:

Reading: Outside potable water tank level: 35 cm from the base
Consumed: 37 gal = 140.1 L in last 24 hours, (10 used for GreenHab Tank 5)
Estimated Grey Water Used: 29.6 gal = 112.0 L in last 24 hours (assumed 80%)

Time: 10:00
Inside Tank: 22 gal = 83.3 L
(Previous reading at 04/14/04: 25 gal = 94.6 L)

Time: 10:10
Inside Tank: 55 gal = 208.2 L

Time: 16:15
Inside Tank: 40 gal = 151.4 L

Time: 23:00
Inside Tank: 21 gal = 79.5 L

HVAC: Nothing new to report.

Transport: From the beginning of Crew 28's rotation it became evident that one of the rovers was not functioning properly. This particular rover does not have a fuel line "on/off" knob, but this is mentioned only for purposes of identification. It's believed that the lack of this knob has nothing to do with the rover's performance. Crewmember Featherstone was the first to notice, on April 12, that the rover smelled of gasoline not ordinarily associated with a warm ignition sequence (after the rover has been running). He also noticed that it idled a bit rougher than the other rover, that it often required light throttling to maintain combustion while stopped, and that there was a bit of lag between application of the throttle and acceleration-that is, the throttle felt "mushy". Crewmember also Drayer noted that the rover quit functioning many times while he assisted Featherstone in plotting a navigation route on the evening of April 12 for the following day's navigation training.

Today, however, crewmember Rzeszutko experienced a prolonged failure of the rover during this morning's EVA, which might have been exacerbated by Rzeszutko inadvertently flooding the engine during the ignition sequence. However, flooding an engine doesn't require an hour and half to correct. Featherstone and Rzeszutko spent that time pulling the starter cord, adjusting the choke, and lightly applying the throttle to get the rover going again.

This rover clearly has a carburetion problem. It is receiving too much gasoline in relation to air, and the exhaust often smells of un-burnt gasoline even when warm. We suggest adjusting the idle speed first; and if that doesn't solve the problem, adjusting the fuel/air mixture or overhauling the carburetor completely.

Mars-Suits: The new push-to-talk buttons that arrived last Tuesday are very effective. The only problem with that is that they have two sockets: one for the speaker and one for the microphone, and the microphone socket is too large: The jack-socket's for the microphone is the same size as that of the speaker, it is too large and does not make a good connection. For this reason, Kathleen Johnson had problems communicating with HabCom and her EVA companion, Greg Michael.

Computers/Networking Infrastructure: All systems work well and the link has only been interrupted for few, almost undetectable periods of time. Strong wind may be responsible for these short interruptions.

Other: The new weather station for the GreenHab was installed by commander R.D. "Gus" Frederick and Gregorio Drayer. The system was bench-tested before installation. It did not have a tripod to stand it. Hence, each of the two pieces of the main mast were drilled and attached to the south wall of the GreenHab with 8-inch lag bolts. The sensors were also installed and the wiring from the station was connected to the Hab's computer as well. Com problems were detected between the weather station and the Gus' Windows XP computer in the upper-deck of the MDRS. This will be troubleshooted tomorrow.

(Update: The com problem, as suspected, was with the USB-to-Serial adapter on the Windows XP machine. Once connected to the serial port of the Windows 98SE this morning, Gus was able to successfully launch the station, with a data collection interval of 10 minutes. We will download the data after 24 hours to evaluate the over-all operation of the system)