Generator/Electricity: At 2:15AM the Generac suffered a major failure. When the motor quit, two crewmembers went outside to investigate. The alternator was on fire. Commander Rocky Persaud extinguished the flames and he and Graham Mann shut off the propane supply to avoid further risk of fire. On examination, only the rear part of the altenator was damaged. The motor, gas connections and other parts of the Generac unit appeared undamaged. Mission Support and Robert Zubrin were contacted about the problem and will have the company make a service call after the weekend.

The unit had been operating properly for a week and when last checked, so there was no reason to expect trouble. It is not clear what caused the fire, but it can scarcely be a coincidence that this happened a few hours after the large electrical discharge which affected the Hab's power circuits. Steps should be taken to provide a lightning rod with a good earth strap on the weather station boom, which although it is plastic, has metallised paint and wires on it which at high voltages could would serve as a conductor. Also, the radio telescope should also be provided with a safe path for any violent electrical events reaching it, for fear of a surge back up the antenna wiring.

The power line was disconnected and the backup 7kW generator was brought to the stone wall and connected. This machine was started at sunrise, but there were power interruptions through the day, particularly to the upper deck of the Hab, as one circuit of the generator kept tripping a circuit breaker. Some of these were due to misunderstandings about the low power situation (someone tried to use the Incinolet -- I didn't get the sign up quickly enough), but other problems appeared to revolve around a more serious problem with the Hab wiring, particularly the load balancing on the two phases of the mains. William Green suggested that the upper and lower deck circuits be switched to see if the problem moved or stayed the same. This would tell us if the problem was the Hab load or the 7kW generator cabling. We have temporarily switched these and are now observing the system. Since the switch, and with extra power drawn from the now-functional Everest generator, we have enjoyed much better power conditions in the evening.

The entire Hab electrical system needs attention, but we wouldn't dare try anything without knowing more about the system. I have been unable to find any electrical wiring diagram of the Hab systems. The best we have been able to do is test the outlets with a plug in power tester -- recently all have seemed normal.

Water: Transferred 57 gallons to the upper tank at 12:30PM. Difficult to do because it kept tripping the pump circuit.

GreenHab: No progress made, since no instructions from Greenhab team and no local expertise.

Everest Rover: The Michigan Rover team continued work on the Everest all day. They worked on the grey water tank, the shower, and the rear ladder. Good progress was made, including short training of the incoming Crew 15. By night-fall, Everest was supplying power via a single cord to the lower deck of the Hab, where it is used to power a few appliances, such as a hotplate. This helped ease the load on the 7kW backup generator.

Additional Activities: Most of the day was spent either cleaning up the Hab, or working on stabilising the Hab power on the backup generator, refuelling the portable generator or assisting the Everest team with their repairs. However, some additional work was done on MDRS suit backpack #2, which had a broken plastic casing. This was repaired with corrugated plastic strips, plastic cement and duct tape. The repair will suffice to bring the unit back into service until the plastic casing can be replaced.