I always believed that the Martian day was 24.6 hours, slightly longer than an Earth day. However here at MDRS it feels an awful lot shorter. There is just so much to do, with the science mission objectives of the crew, tasks requested from the remote science teams on Earth, and general maintenance to just keep our little oasis inhabitable that it feels like we have only just gotten up when the sun starts setting once again.

We were expecting a crew from the Finnish Broadcasting Company to pay us a visit today. We were told to expect them at 0900 hrs, and they arrived exactly on schedule. The timing was perfect, as we had just finished our breakfast and other admin tasks, and were getting ready for the morning briefing where I make sure the rest of the crew understands the plan for the day.

We delayed the briefing long enough to welcome our visitors, who introduced themselves as Eero and John. They then filmed part of the briefing and were also able to find out what we had planned for the day.

The days main objective was to be EVA 8 - a return to Chluda Pass. This was a site which was reconnoitered in EVA 3, and thought by Kyoichi, our crew geologist, to be interesting and well worth a return with a more generous time allocation. In addition, Louise was keen to extern her geophysical survey further from the hab. Consequently EVA 8 was planned to satisfy both of these goals.

However the first item on the agenda was EVA 7 - an attempt to rectify the ignition fault with ATV 3. If this ATV could not be repaired, then EVA 8 would be limited to the two aforementioned crew members, and I really wanted to send three. At the briefing I had outlined two plans for the conduct of EVA 8, contingent on the outcome of EVA 7. If EVA 7 was successful, then Bob McNally would become the third member of the EVA team. He was also a member of EVA 7, and this provided an incentive for him to get the ATV working.

As it turned out, however, the ATV malfunction proved to be a blessing in disguise, as not only were we successful in restoring the ATV to usability in sim, but our visitors were also very keen to film every moment of the event from suiting up till our eventual success.

Soon after, the members of EVA 8 emerged from the airlock, keenly followed by the film crew which was eager to document our ATV mounted expedition. There was a moment of apprehension when ATV 2 developed an ignition problem with prevented it from being started but this problem was not as severe as the one that afflicted ATV 3 and with a sigh of relief we had it started after a delay to our departure of only about 30 minutes. Even the simplest problem takes time to fix in a spacesuit.

While all this was going on, we had a visit from the 'Whispering Sands' supply vehicle (Don Foutz) to provide a water resupply and remove a malfunctioning laboratory vacuum pump, and first I and then Louise was interviewed by our Finnish visitors.

With the EVA team finally on the move (and film crew in hot persuit) those of us left back at the hab were able to get back to our never ending list of tasks, from biology experiments requested by our science teams back on 'Earth', to the engineering chores that have to be performed as part of our daily routine.

Our EVA team returned (reluctantly) about 15 minutes before their a assigned latest return time of 16:00hrs, and as there was still some daylight left, there was time to address the outstanding problem of the non-functioning grey water sump pump which was preventing our waste water recycling system from working. The three person engineering team donned improvised protective clothing, and armed with the recently located plumbing snake, strode purposefully through the pressurised tunnel to the GreenHab. And to the relief of the entire crew, who up until now had been forced to carry buckets of water to support our sanitary system, the task was successfully completed.

That done, it was time to return to the wardroom and gather for our nightly duty of writing reports, and if time permits, perhaps eating.