• Computers are virus-free - Norton has been run on HabCom and all personal machines, with no instances of infected files.
  
  
• Water System - We will look at rigging pumps in series via an intermediate reservoir to generate enough pressure head to fill the second floor tank. URGENT REQUEST: Please send Hanksville contact to fill the water tank on Sunday.
  
  
• Electrical Re-configuration of Habitat - Circuits inside the habitat were reconfigured from one circuit to two separate circuits with independent breakers, after 4 power failures in the morning. Computers and sensitive instruments are on one circuit, while kitchen appliances and other more volatile systems are on the other. This will save hours of time rebooting computers.
  
  
• EVA Suit Human Factors Analysis - The human factors specialist (E. Morphew) conducted an initial EVA suit analysis during one of the maintenance EVAs today (see separate report before end of mission). Radios continue to be problematic. For maintenance EVAs near the hab, we have begun using exclusively the handheld radios through the helmets. This works some of the time. Today the wind was so strong that we resorted to hand signals through hab portals to communicate with the EVA team.
  
  
• Advanced ATV Training - One maintenance EVA today included advanced ATV training in preparation for challenging scientific traverses scheduled over the next week.
  
  
• Recording Engineering - Initial studio setup is complete, and two songs have been successfully recorded and sent to remote studios using two different methods of on-line collaboration. We see this as a good analog for many science and engineering tasks to be done on Mars. The tasks are technically challenging, intellectually demanding, data-intensive, and impossible without advanced planning, real-time coordination, and creative collaboration. We are using Digidesign's ProTools LE system running on a Digi001 and an Apple Macintosh Titanium Powerbook (on loan from Digi (www.digidesign.com)). Digidesign's DigiStudio (with Rocket Networks) has proven to be extremely useful and easy to use, and we are looking forward to feedback from the remote musicians and engineers.
  
  Note: Any musicians wishing to collaborate from their own ProTools studios are invited to contact us via Mission Control to request permission to access our DigiStudio folder. Songs recorded in our MDRS Extremophiles Studio have thus far included vocal tracks (on a B.L.U.E. Dragonfly mike on loan from Guitar Center in Houston, TX), drum machine tracks, piano/organ (Yamaha P20 also on loan from Guitar Center), electric and acoustic guitar, electric bass, flute, banjo, percussion instruments, and sampled sounds from the hab.
  
  Mission Control can expect to be contacted on Monday night to facilitate collaboration with It's Not Rocket Science Studios in Houston, Texas. We will attempt to upload full sessions to the Digistudio site, if we can successfully transmit files that large (about 10-50 mb). The whole crew is contributing to these creative projects, with some crewmembers even collaborating to write poetry and lyrics. This project has been a morale booster for the crew, especially after the successful initial setup of the studio and demonstration of the collaboration infrastructure with Earth studios.
  
  Request for Advice: We would like to use the piano as a MIDI keyboard to call banks of sounds (the Yamaha is very limited in its sounds). Could someone at Mission Control find a musician who might know of a good way to access more sounds (perhaps downloading from the web)?
  
  
• Large File Transfer Protocol Established - For those studios who are not equipped with ProTools or DigiStudio, we have successfully set up FTP servers to transmit compressed MP3 files for collaboration. We are able to downlink 5 mb files to earth (upload to FTP site) in about 20 minutes, and uplink (download from FTP sites) in 4 minutes. This will be sufficient for our collaboration goals if we are able to maintain the systems performing at this level.
  
  
• Food Experiment - Cooking and food preparation continue to require approximately 10-15 man-hours a day, but the crew is healthy and is enjoying the food. We will make bread for the first time tomorrow, which is a source of excitement for the crew. Menus and more details on the food are being posted in a separate report. The vegetables are beginning to cause odors in the habitat due to limited refrigerated storage and repeated power failures.
  
  Crew 6