Time: 18:30

Weather: low 45.5F (7.5C); high 73.8F (23.2C) Mostly cloudy until mid-afternoon; breezy from southwest.

Crew Physical Status: Very busy, with improved spirits.

Brief Narrative of Field Mission Results: Daily briefing at 09:00 included a visit from Don of the Whispering Sands motel in Hanksville, regarding shipments and emergency medical care. NASA's Research and Education Network (NREN, see http://hpcc.lerc.nasa.gov/nren.shtml) spokesperson described the phone system they have implemented at MDRS (including 12 lines with voice mail). The Mobile Agents group then had a full day of "in house" testing and debugging. Ways to speed up the system and ensure proper initialization were identified, leading to software and procedure modifications. This process continued until 17:00, when the CDR returned from a three-hour EVA with the two geologists to Candor Chasma.

Successes for the day include: Confirmation that the wired test method for system shakedown; designs to significantly improve system performance over multiple-hour EVAs; confirmation of the accuracy of Biovest data and alert processing; essential completion of the first "walk about" EVA scenario; improvements to speech processing to provide feedback; completion of testing of the Exploration Robotic Assistant (ERA) in preparation for integration to the larger system; reinstallation of the Windows2000 operating system on an astronaut backpack computer after a crash prevented automated repair; first EVA for the geologists in Mars Society suits, videorecorded to show collaboration style and methods of measuring and comparing strata.

The executive committee met for 30 minutes at 1700 to review progress and plan for tomorrow.

Plans for Tomorrow: The team agreed to have a second day of in-house integration testing. The geologists will carry out a."baseline" EVA (in shirt sleeves) to allow determining how the suits today might have encumbered their work.

Report Transmission Schedule: CDR check in around 18:30. Geologists will write today's EVA report tomorrow. Photos will be available later today.

Maintenance: All systems are operating normally. Generator was taken down for five minutes; took 3/4 quart of oil. Water tank refilled inside hab.

EVA Narrative/Data/Interpretations: Videorecording of exploration of a wash will enable quantifying how the two geologists worked together.

Inventory: We are giving our shopping list to Frank Schubert for weekend restocking. We are now planning more dinners in the hab.

Miscellaneous: Maarten greeted Rick at breakfast with the good news that Minibook Computer 1 was now working. Oh, April Fool.