Snow surrounding the Hab
We woke up to about 2 inches of snow on the ground, shrouding the red hills in a crisp blanket of white. Everyone wanted to pitch in for engineering rounds, to have an excuse to get outside! (We can check on the Green Hab, ATVs, and Musk Observatory “in sim” via marked rock paths that serve as “pressurized tunnels” so that we can reach those areas without donning a spacesuit.) But when we stepped out of the Engineering airlock, we discovered that the snow was still coming down and, entranced, we all scrambled up to the top of the Observatory ridge to see the view. White hills stretched out in all directions, and a soft, heavy silence hung over us—not oppressive, but hushed, as an indrawn breath before an exclamation of delight.
Concretions
Carla, Brian, and Darrel pumped water into our water tank while Mike and I checked and started the ATVs (to keep them in good order). Then I went back up towards the Observatory, following a tip I’d seen that there were good examples of concretions in some of the rocks lining the path;
More concretions
and sure enough, they were evident despite the snow, protruding from the bottom of overhangs and sprinkled everywhere! These are similar to the infamous “blueberries” that the Opportunity rover on Mars discovered, having formed by precipitation into dissolved-out pockets within porous sandstone.
We reluctantly went back inside and turned to our various individual tasks. Our EVA plans for the day were affected by the weather; just when we’d gained confidence on our ATVs, the snow now meant that for safety reasons we’d focus on pedestrian EVAs instead. Another side effect of the snow was that our internet connection (via satellite dish) went out at some point in the morning. However, this presented an opportunity as well: we decided to wait until an EVA crew could get outside and brush the snow off our receiver to (hopefully) restore connectivity without breaking sim to fix it.
In general, though, our whole pace slowed down a little, which was to many of us, I think, a welcome reprieve from the rush-rush-rush of the past three days. Luis, Carla, and Brian set out on an EVA to Candor Chasma, located to the east. More about that adventure in the next post, from Carla!
