MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

EVA Report – February 20th

EVA Report

EVA#8

Crew members: Mouâdh Bouayad (EVA leader), Arthur Lillo, Louis Maller and Xavier Rixhon (EVA buddies)

Habcom : Simon Bouriat

Departure time:  9:05 AM

Return time: 11:20 AM

Vehicles: 1 rover and 2 ATVs

Location: South of the Hab (12N 518500, 4250000) and white Rock Canyon (12N 520250, 4247500).

Purposes:

  • White Rock Canyon exploration
  • Seismology experiment: verification of the instruments’ proper functioning

Summary:

We did the engineering check, and we filled the black tank to 90%. It took us about 20 minutes to complete the tasks. After that, we took the tank out of the rover Phobos, took Deimos and two ATVs.

We first went to check the seismology experiment, South on the Main Road, and the seismometer had slightly moved; we moved it back the way it should be. Otherwise everything functioned. We then took the rover and ATVs again and headed to White Rock Canyon. As there was fog in the helmets, we had to drive quite slowly.

After 15 minutes, we finally arrived to the White Rock Canyon. We pulled over and went to explore the canyon at 10:05 AM. After 40 minutes of exploration, we figured out that Xavier didn’t have air supply anymore. Therefore, we plugged one of Arthur’s air pipe to Xavier’s helmet, and I decided to go back to the Hab. They thus had to walk together back to the rover. Once there, we put Arthur’s pipe back where it belonged.

We left the White Rock Canyon at 10:45 AM, and arrived at the Hab at 11:05 AM. We then finished the engineering check of the rover and ATVs. It was quite hard to refill the ATVs with fuel. We then got back to the Hab, at 11:20 AM.