Astronomy (Jenny): We're still waiting for a clear night! However, we did manage to replace the second observatory webcam and get it up and running this afternoon.

Biology (Meryl): The plants were watered with 2000mL water today. The three of the pea plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) planted on 3/21/06 in tray 6 are sprouting. One tomato plant is sprouting. Flies and aphids are present on the lettuce plants in tray 8. The other plants remain healthy. A diagram of the plants in the GreenHab will be posted to the WebDav. The other plants remain healthy.

Water quality testing continued today in the GreenHab tanks. Today's samples were taken from 12 inches below the surface of the tanks. Ammonia testing was done with diluted samples today due to ammonia readings reaching the maximum on our tests yesterday. Our results are included below.

• All tanks: Nitrate and Nitrite concentration at 0ppm
• pH: 7.0 for tanks 1-3, 6.8 for tank 4, 6.8-7.0 for tank 5
• Ammonia: 20ppm for tanks 1-3, 10ppm for tank 4, 15ppm for tank 5

Communication and Navigation (Jan): Today's EVA again used all features of our Amateur Radio-based integrated communication/navigation system: We had APRS locator beacons on each EVA suit backpack, and the voice repeater and digipeater box up on Radio Ridge (400m northwest of the hab). Via our hab base station and laptop, near-real-time positioning data was published on the Internet.

Voice and data coverage again worked from the hab to about five kilometers out, then it became intermittent as we were traveling in deep valleys. We did get voice and APRS coverage near the northernmost point of our route, after we had climbed a small hill to get out of the valley.

Limiting factor was battery life of the handheld transceivers.

Real-time EVA position data was available on the Internet at the following links:

• http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=ki4mss-7%2Cki4ntp-7%2Cki4agq-7& topo=8&gmap=0&units=metric
• http://db.aprsworld.net/datamart/switch.php?call=KI4MSS-7&maps=yes
• http://db.aprsworld.net/datamart/switch.php?call=KI4NTP-7&maps=yes
• http://db.aprsworld.net/datamart/switch.php?call=KI4AGQ-7&maps=yes

Callsigns were: KI4MSS-7 (Anne), KI4NTP-7 (Jason) and KI4AGQ-7 (Jan).

After the EVA, these links still provide archived APRS data that can be visualized with the appropriate software. The Crew 47 website will provide screenshots of the EVA route with the next update.

Due to the effort required to "schlep" the heavy digipeater box to and from the top of Radio Ridge before and after each EVA (in-sim of course), and to work around the TH battery issue, we will try a different digipeater strategy with our next EVA: we will mount the digi box on an ATV rack to take it with us, setting the transceiver (which is powered by a large 12V battery) to "high" transmit power, while leaving our backpack-mounted beacons on a battery-saving low power setting. This may give us both better coverage and better battery life; we will find out.

Human Factors (Jan): The participants keep taking MASCOT and MOODY tests.

Radiation (Jason): Radiation data was taken on the EVA today, as well as GPS data. The data will be processed and sent to Mission Support for further processing tomorrow.