Technical Update from Alex Foessel

• Today Nomad drove autonomously to Camp Cricket (eastern side of the Patriot Hills) from the field of rocks called Patriot Hills Moraine. Estimated travelled distance: 1755 m.
• Panoramic images from the Patriot Hills sparse morraine (Asteroid Belt) downloaded to main camp. They are being processed to obtain color images.
• General team meeting: evaluation of the feasibility to achieve operations at the Independence Hills Morraine (a.k.a. "Panther Hollow").
• Reasons against: reduced resources for missing PolarHeaven tent that would force operations from smaller facilities in cold conditions. The lack of a real geological reason to go to the place. Risk of damaging the robot during the traverse.
• Reasons in favor: deliver the advertised long traverse. Visit a more scenic place. Opportunity to obtain valuable data for ambitious potential enhancement to landmark navigation. Operate classifier in an area with known distribution. Operate classifier in two different areas (Panther Hollow and Asteroid Belt). We can do it.
• Decision: Nomad goes to Patriot Hills starting driving tomorrow, pending succesful initial test of the spectrometer tonight. The return will be forced to give more test time in the Asteroid Belt.
• Initial testing of the spectrometer: up to this time (1:04AM), I was told from Camp Cricket that the initial tests to get data from the science camera and the spectrometer are succesful. This facilitates a prompt departure, once readings for all the meteorites are concluded (with the robot static, so it does not count as part of the demonstration). The robot is distinguishing meteorites from meteowrongs.
• FACH commandos found one part of the tent several kilometers towards the wind direction. This opens the hope that more parts could be found to have that facility for next expeditions.
• Weather today: max -15.8C, min -19.7C, 15 knots winds, overcast in the morning turning to clear sky later, some snowdrift.

Expedition Report from William Cassidy

Woke up this morning to driving snow. This could be a poor results day if the snow doesn't let up. Visibility was initially very poor-- a partial whiteout in which we couldn't see Patriot Hills and there was almost no surface definition. We must wait until this weather condition plays itself out.

Today we learned once again that Antarctica can punch your ticket in other ways beside poor weather. Liam and Mike went out to Nomad as the weather got better and better during the afternoon. The gasoline-engine generator started up nicely but after about five minutes, it seized. Checking, they found it was out of oil, even though the oil gauge read "full" and the low-oil cutoff switch had not prevented starting. What other damage this may have caused, if anything, remained to be seen. Alex, Mike, Peta and Moncho (two Chilean mechanics) went back after dinner to learn what they could. They were back in two hours with bad news: the crankcase is cracked, and the robot's motor is not going to run anymore. They took a photo of the damage; the crack looks about six inches long. Now we must explore the possibility of hooking up the 5 kw generator we have been using in camp, get it to run Nomad, and perhaps tow it behind as it travels. Hopefully, this will be possible and allow us to complete the field agenda.