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February 2nd, 2010:

Sol 10: Stratigraphy and Clue

Today during our morning planning meeting, we discussed what our remaining goals for the mission would be. Our first week was a constant barrage of learning new procedures (for science investigations adapted to this environment; for keeping ourselves fed, watered, and clean; and for keeping the Hab functioning). Now that we’ve found our legs in those regards, our attention has opened out to thinking more broadly about what we want to accomplish. And now there are just four days left of our mission!

Brian has spent hours learning how his land streamer of seismic geophones works, so that he can deploy it to collect a seismic refraction profile of an intriguing inverted channel. Darrel has struggled to find time to work on his radio-controlled plane, which has a camera and could potentially be used for scouting good locations for on-foot investigations. Luis wants to culture and analyze the biological samples he’s already collected. Carla wants to compile the results of her Mars Dessert Research Station efforts. 😉 I’ve been itching to get out and do some real geology, not just the tourist-geology I’ve accomplished so far (point and gasp and take pictures!). Of us all, Mike may be in the best position, having raised the radio telescope from 10 feet to 20 feet high early in the mission; he’s been happily collecting data ever since.

After much discussion about what our remaining EVAs might focus on, Brian determined that his land streamer deployment likely would require a seriously long (like all day) EVA—or even two such EVAs. He also needed some more time to plan just where and how he would deploy it. So we decided that I would use today to do a two-ish-hour EVA with a geology goal, and Brian will aim to do a seismic EVA tomorrow.

I jumped on the chance immediately. I wanted to find an outcrop and practice measuring a stratigraphic column in Mars-like field conditions (e.g., suit, gloves, helmet, etc.). From our crew’s previous EVA 8 to Candor Chasma, it seemed a likely place to find nice exposed layers. That crew had walked out to the Chasma, but we instead planned to drive up Lowell Highway to Cactus Road, aiming for the “Candor Chasma Access Parking” area, to shorten the trip.

Kiri and Mike contemplate the road ahead

Kiri and Mike contemplate the road ahead

So after lunch, Carla, Mike and I suited up. We exited the airlock at 1:45 p.m. and roared out on our three ATVs onto the “highway”, a moist concoction of snow and mud, but still quite drivable. As commander for the EVA, I led the group, with a mirror strapped to my left forearm so I could glance back and check on Carla and Mike without turning around (which is very difficult in the suits, and would be very unsafe if done while driving). I checked my GPS unit every so often so that I would know when the intersection with Cactus Road was at hand. I’d pre-loaded the GPS not only with our final destination but also with some waypoints compiled into a “route” (my first exercise of this GPS capability). Everything went fine at first—but then we overshot Cactus Road. We turned around and headed back slowly. I could see the waypoint blinking at me on the GPS screen, but we just could not find a road or track of any sort heading east of Lowell, due to thin but obscuring snow cover. After some dithering and scouting expeditions on foot, we gave up on that goal. Instead, I decided that we would head north on Lowell until we found an interesting outcrop and just map that.

Carla and Kiri traversing the Lowell North Sedimentary Outcrop

Carla and Kiri traversing the Lowell North Sedimentary Outcrop

As we went north, I was anxious—as commander of the EVA, it was my responsibility to make good use of our time, and I was thrown off by the failure to find Cactus Road. Would we even see anything interesting to the north? I’d been up there before on EVA 5 and only had a dim impression of lots and lots of soft, squishy, muddy Morrison Formation. I wanted solid rock with interesting structure to map.

Kiri delights in the outcrop

Kiri delights in the outcrop

EVA16_pano3 And then we lucked out! We spotted a low hill topped with some Dakota sandstone to the east of the road. (More accessible than the top of Olympus Mons, too!) We parked the ATVs and headed over on foot. And yes! It was fantastic! (Back at the Hab, we would learn that this site has a name: Lowell North Sedimentary Outcrop. So someone else thought it was worth study, too.)
Mike doing his Star Wars sandpeople impersonation

Mike doing his Star Wars sandpeople impersonation

We clambered up to the Dakota layer, and I walked Carla and Mike through the process of identifying layers and noting them down on paper. It definitely was good to have multiple people there. I couldn’t see my own suit well enough even to get the pencil out of my shoulder strap holder. We didn’t have a Jacob staff or Brunton compass, so we made do with a T-square we’d found in the EVA room, which had been augmented with a plumb bob to aid in standing it straight up.
Carla and Kiri sense a disturbance in the force

Carla and Kiri sense a disturbance in the force

We measured 13 distinct layers over 146.5 inches (the entire exposed section) and Carla and Mike took copious pictures to augment my hasty sketches. (Pencil, by the way, is highly superior to ballpoint pen in 36 F weather.) The layers were a combination of fine horizontally bedded sandstone, medium sand layers inclined about 30 degrees, and conglomerate layers with gravel and pebbles. Some of the latter seemed to have some inverse grading (finer grains at the bottom, coarser grains near the top), which can be created by debris (mud) flows, as opposed to deposition from water or air.

Kiri and the rock hammer

Kiri and the rock hammer

We spent a good chunk of time at the outcrop, then toured around it, also noting an impressive cave that sat below our level, under a treacherous overhang composed of the same crumbly/poorly consolidated rocks. We kept our distance from the edge despite its undeniable allure. I found a chunk of gypsum buried in some sand, and we collect a couple of other small samples to bring back to the Hab.

You can view the full EVA 16 information, including a map.

Olympus Mons from the northeast

Olympus Mons from the northeast

We returned at 4:07 p.m. Now I’m sitting at the work bench, writing reports, and savoring having done some field geology, here at MDRS! I plan to make up a proper section (to scale, with composition, grading, and layering noted) soon… when I can find time. Whee!

We’re planning to play MDRS Clue tonight. Darrel turns out to have some truly impressive artistic skills, and he became enamored of the idea of an MDRS-themed Clue game. So he put together a full game board, with MDRS locations instead of the traditional Clue ones; a set of character cards, based on the six of us and our roles; and a set of weapon cards (hydrochloric acid, horribly polluted GreenHab water, oxygen tank, wrench, rock hammer, and a cool lookin’ rock). The end result is really cool! We’ll leave it here for future crews to enjoy. (See the board below. He drew all the locations from photos of the actual areas and they are very realistic!)

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And with that, goodnight!

Sol 9: No Road

With only a half-dozen EVAs under my belt, and going no further north than Olympus Mons in any of them, I was eager to get on either the biology or geology/geophysics teams for one of their extended EVAs. As crew astronomer, my contributions to the Hab are basically done: the radio telescope alterations have been completed, meaning that all I really need to do is sit next to the Radio Shack speaker while recording the signals on my computer. Not the most exciting use of the rest of my time on Mars, but I’m enjoying it (especially since I’m also learning Unix commands, which helps to pass the time). I’ve picked up some interesting noise during my recordings, but for the most part they are of terrestrial origins, particularly our radio squawks during our few completed EVAs since the finalization of the radio telescope alterations.

Almost needless to say, I’ve been itching to get out and actually see the terrain surrounding the Hab. I’ve been up to the Mid-Ridge Planitia back on EVA 6, and yesterday I scaled Olympus Mons as part of EVA 14, but other than those my EVAs have been confined to the immediate Hab vicinity. So I jumped on the opportunity when Luís announced his plans to travel a few kilometers north to the area surrounding Lithe Canyon.

I dressed and readied, eager to get back on the ATVs other than warming them up in the morning. The wind rushing under my helmet, the roar of the engine, the smooth gearshifts of Opportunity, everything just melded together in a sensory overload. The views were astounding, with cliffs and gullies and hills and rock formations streaming by as our twin exploratory rovers traversed the snow and mud-covered surface. We finally arrived at our destination after a few wrong turns, dismounted the pair of rovers, and trekked into the canyon.

While I’m no geologist or biologist, even I could appreciate both the view of the rocks and the potential for diverse lifeforms within those rocks. I took a ton of pictures while Luís scouted the area for the best sampling site, always keeping an eye over my shoulder to check that we were still in visual range. While we couldn’t make it all the way to the canyon floor, since we would have no sure-fire way to scamper back out, but we did stumble across a face that had great geologic and biologic potential. This was also where Luís took out his patented EVA Bio Box to collect a handful of samples, and where I snapped quite a few photos in hopes that they’d be interpretable by Kiri upon returning to the Hab. Of course, I’d like to show my friends those pictures as well, since the scenery was quite stunning, so they eventually found their way onto my computer, but without the help of a cp…

With the sun sneaking out from behind the clouds during the sample collection process, our return journey was much slicker and dirtier than our path out. I took the lead, as Luís had encountered some radio problems, so that we could better keep track of each other’s locations for the drive back. We came down Lowell Highway, passing by Ascraeus, Pavonis, Arsia, and Olympus Montes from the north, and came into view (and radio contact) of the Hab. We parked, re-entered the Hab, and were greeted with boiling water and tea packets. A fitting end to a three-hour EVA.

View the EVA summary, map, elevation, and heartrate plots