There are no two ways about it; spring is here in full force in southern Utah. And with the heat comes an exhausted crew after each EVA. Today the crew got off to a bit of a slow start, spending the morning resting and planning the day's EVA. Unfortunately the crew becoming a little too comfortable with EVA procedure over the last week has brought frustration with any bit of confusion. In communications with the RST concerning the last couple of missions, one thing is becoming very clear: Murphy's Law controls everything.

The most recent issue to arise with the tele-science operations is the coordinate standard used with the GPS. It seems that recent crews have been using the WGS84 offset as a standard, and that is what Crew 25 has primarily been working with. However, missions in previous field systems, including EVAs referenced by the RST in the directed research, are in other coordinate systems such as NAD27. This lack of a universal standard is causing a great deal of confusion. In order to obtain consistency with previous seasons, today's EVA had to use NAD27. Reverting to this standard reverses the trend in this season of using WGS84. This is an issue that ultimately needs to be addressed by Mission Support and the RST in the near future. This is especially important for all directed science.

Once the bulk of the confusion about EVA 12 was settled, Dennis, Kevin and Ryan departed with the task of completing the 6th geology RST directed mission (geology 5 was put on hold), and also the first PEV mission of Crew 25. The three piled into the truck, and after a pressurizing period, were able to squirm somewhat awkwardly out of their packs and helmets. They drove 22 miles, ending up just north of Factory Butte, where they fit back into their packs, and began the PED portion of the mission. After a tiring hike through amazing scenery and tremendous heat, they completed their sampling, and then completed their trek back to the Hab.

While they were out, Amy, Daniel and Jason rested from their tiring EVA yesterday, working on smaller tasks around the Hab. They kept themselves busy reorganizing things in an attempt to leave MDRS in better condition than it was found. Jason also continued debugging the PSUMS rover's main microcontroller in continued efforts to do testing with it. The PSUMS project is one of many ongoing experiments that are fully confirming Murphy's Law. Nonetheless, the PSUMS crew members are gaining a tremendous amount of insight about how their project can fit in to an astronaut's field routine.

With the growing intensity of the desert sun, and the extended length of each EVA, the crew seems to be stepping back to one EVA per day. This trend will likely continue to save the crew's energy and prevent fatigue from plaguing the safety of each EVA. Crew 25 is continuing to work hard to satisfy all of its many mission objectives.