Time: started 17:30, completed 19:27 (with interruptions)

Weather: low 6.4c (43.5F) high of 19.1c (66.4F), clear and dry

Crew Physical Status: In a Saturday mood, but productive.

Brief Narrative of Field Mission Results: The land dried fast. In the intense sun of the morning briefing, nobody needed a jacket, even though it was only in the mid-50s(F). We talked for over a half-hour, beginning now to sketch out the next week.

The main activities of the day were 1) to begin the transfer of the repeater antenna to "The crags" just north of camp, the first hop towards Lith Canyon, 5 km away, and 2) to further debug and test the various problems discovered during this past Wednesday's EVA.

Meanwhile, the Ames video group interviewed Maarten and me in two efforts that stretched to almost a full day of preparation and retakes. I'm not a sound bite person. I'd much prefer having the space of a stage and an hour before a large audience, than to condense complexities into single sentences for a camera. Or if you want just a sentence, give me a few minutes and I'll write one down. But extemporaneous? Say it right the first time? That's for uttering poems, not strategies and research methods. It'd be better to prepare a script and act it out.

Amazingly, the roads were dry and dust was forming by mid-afternoon. Abby, Brent, and walked over to Pooh's Corner to revisit the site of Wednesday's EVA. I wanted to learn what they might have done differently-- how the suits, plan, ERA, and panorama-based plan might have missed some opportunities. I videotaped their remarks as we walked around the area for an hour. We found several vantage points and remarkable features that they missed, mostly from the lack of time. Abby said she felt pressured to follow the plan; Brent agreed that he would have improvised more if not preoccupied by the testing, especially to check features such as a band of rounded white rocks with crossbedding, that the panoramas didn't reveal. (It should be remembered that only two of three panoramas were taken by the ERA during the autonomous preparation day.) The bottom line appears to be that this is a rich area and many hours of work would have been warranted. Overall they were happy with the group's prioritization and of the samples they had taken.

Today we also tried commanding the Personal Exploration Robot (http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~illah/EDUTOY/), using the provided interface. We brought PER to Utah to consider opportunities for such a small, inexpensive device.

About 6 PM we gathered round outside to share our plans for tomorrow, our only day off during this 17 day trip. Different groups will go to Canyonlands and Arches National Park, perhaps south to Lake Powell.

John prepared feta cheese chicken with rice and vegetables for dinner, served 7:45.

Plans for Tomorrow: Long distance EVAs with SUV rovers.

Report Transmission Schedule: Greenhab report is planned.

Maintenance: Don Foutz changed the oil on the Generac this morning; it runs more smoothly and is quieter. Toilet Supply Tank stopped refilling again; we determined that there was still a filter on the right side, which was supposed have been removed.

EVA Narrative/Data/Interpretations: NA

Inventory: No problems.

Miscellaneous: "Okay, could you say that once more in a single sentence, but with the same enthusiasm?"