Tomorrow we begin the third and final phase, a full five days simulation on Mars. As today was our pull back from full simulation, this gave the crew the opportunity to go outside and feel the fresh breeze and warm sun on their skins. The temperature continues to be high, reaching the again at least 100 degrees Farenheit.

This morning we received a surprise visit from two people. One was a visit from the local ranger who came by looking for a pack of dogs. As we hadn't seen or heard any near the hab, the ranger continued on his way (lets hope they don't find their way to us).

The second visitor, who turned up almost simultaneously, was Mr John Barainca. John and one of his colleagues were checking some instruments from the local area and decided to come around to see how we were doing. He spent a good hour with us talking about various issues related to our stay in the hab, activities, geology and biological features of the surrounds and hearing our personal accounts from our stay here in the MDRS. It was very intellectually stimulating to converse with someone as enthusiastic and passionate about Mars exploration as John. The crew were all very appreciative of his visit.

After John's departure, the crew went about their own individual morning routines. Jamon went downstairs and continued to clean up the lower floor and gave it a mop. He then took the opportunity to do some washing and hang the clothes outside. Heather and Susmita continued personal tasks and reports. Richard felt the need to do some vigourous exercise and hence went for a run around the immediate area for around an hour. I continued my work on the design of the solar power source for the repeater station. After about an hour working out a strategic plan of what I wanted to do and providing some underpinning theory and mathematics behind it, I then went downstairs to the tools and workbench area. I took the solar cells outside and tested their functionality with a voltmeter and small fan. After confirming its operation I then went inside to connect another solar cell and confirm its functioning. My plan is to establish the initial solar power source. Other things that I would like to do but won't have time (may be a great follow on project) is to put software behind the the solar cell so that it can intelligently "track" the sun's travers across the sky from sunrise to sunset, hook up some capacitors to store excess energy to be released during times of poor sunlight, winter months or cloud-cover. I am very excited by this project as it is one of the few times since leaving university that I have had the opportunity to undertake a project from concept to design and construction through to deployment and test and verification. I just hope that I have enough time to do it all.

Although we didn't do any official EVAs or the like today, the crew were still very tired after dinner as they had had a full day from all their activities.

Tomorrow we go into the final phase. I feel that we are ready to handle this as everyone's confidence has lifted after going through phase 1 and then 2. There has been a sense of satisfaction and ownership from the crew in the way they have gone about cleaning up the hab and I am keen for that to continue as it is not only a practical activity but also promotes interaction, a sense of teamwork and social cohesion. I am however aware that tempers may become frayed and that outbursts may start to creep in after day three or four. This is not surprising given that we have all lived in each other's shirt pockets for the last 9 days and have had no real private time or space.