MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

EVA Report
EVA #10

Crew members: Victoria Da-Poian (EVA leader), Xavier Rixhon, Arthur Lillo and Mouâdh Bouayad

Location: -South of the Hab to bury the seismometer (12N 518500, 4250000)
-North of the Hab to do the sextant experiment (at Tank Wash : 518500, 4253500)

Vehicules : 1 rover , 2 ATV
Time: departure at 9:34 a.m
      Arrival : 11h27

Purposes:
•       Around the Hab exploration
•       EVA training for newcomers
•       Seismology experiment: dig a deeper hole and bury again the seismometer, the acquisition system and the battery
•       Sextant experiment at the North

Summary:
The Engineering Check was quick today, no refill was needed. We did not take the balloon because of the risk of wind. We took one rover and two ATV to go to the plain just North of Camel Ridge, where we dug a hole some Sols ago. At 9:45 we des-installed the seismometer, to dig again the hole, we installed again the seismometer and covered them with dirt and plastic planks to protect them from the bad weather. At 10:10 we finished the seismometer activity. Then we began our exploration: we left the seismometer to go to the North around Tank Wash. The view was absolutely stunning despite the wind we had. On the road we could see the Hab and establish radio contact with HabCom around 10:30. On the road to Tank Wash we stopped twice to make some measures with the sextant for Arthur. We made some pictures also. Then we went to Tank Wash and we did the last measure of sextant experience. Around 11:00, we went back to the Hab. We worked together to put the white tank on a rover (for Shannon), and then we worked on the plastic cover and we took it back from the tunnel because it was unfasten due to the wind we had last days. Then we returned to the Hab around 11:30.

EVA Report
EVA#9
Crew members: Louis Mangin (EVA leader), Simon Bouriat, Victoria
Da-Poian and Louis Maller (EVA buddies)
Habcom : Arthur Lillo
Departure time:  9:15 AM
Return time: 12:15 AM
Vehicules: 1 rover (deimos) and 2 ATVs
Location: North of the hab, South of the hab (12N 518500, 4250000) and
white Rock Canyon (12N 520250, 4247500).

Purposes:
•       Looking for an acceptable location near the hab to deploy the
balloon for 24 hours.
•       Seismology experiment: collection of data and verification of the
instruments’ good functioning.
•       White Rock Canyon exploration, shooting of “official photos”, with
flags, banners.

Summary:
To begin with, we had a problem with Louis Maller’s earplug. We
realized a bit late that he was not hearing habcom properly, as we
were already in the airlock. That is why we ended up being 15 minutes
late, Louis having to change his earplug.
The engineering check was pretty fast, Victoria and Louis just forgot
to check the oil on the ATVs, so that we lost maybe 2 minutes.
We began by looking for an acceptable place to let the balloon for a
whole day, visible from the hab. We measured the distances with our
feet, and found the spot to attach it, north from hab.
We went back to the vehicles and headed south. We stopped to check the
seismometer that had moved, at 9:45. We discovered that the plastic
plate we put over the captor was touching it. We fixed it by adding
rocks under its sides.
15 minutes later, we reached White Rock canyon. We managed to go
halfway up of it, shot photos of the team for communication purpose,
with our flags, and with our school’s banner. Then we kept exploring
the site as most of us were not part of the previous expedition who
had been here. We spent less than one hour and a half there, then went
back to the base at 11:20, shot a photo of the hab, and came back.
To end with, we used the compressor for the first time, and spent
about 20 minutes discovering the process and inflating all tires that
needed to be.

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.

EVA report:

Crew members: Simon Bouriat (EVA leader), Victoria Da-Poian, Arthur Lillo and Louis Mangin (EVA buddies)

Location:

• East of the Hab (Marble Ritual, 12N 518700, 4250700)

Departure time:  9:00 AM

Return time: 10:05 PM

Vehicles used: None

Duration: 1:05 hours

Summary:
We first walked from the Hab to Marble Ritual to test the radio relay built yesterday. In fact, we know that the walkie-talkies start to malfunction around this area because of the distance. So we went there and split the group into two pairs. Two were supposed to keep the radio relay with them and contact the Hab and the two others had to keep walking until they lost contact with the hab. Thanks to the radio relay, this last pair should have been able to contact the Hab. This experiment was a failure for different reasons. First of all, it took a long time to reach Marble Ritual as our helmets were covered of fog. Secondly, the walkie-talkies were too sensitive to the terrain. Most of the time, the HabCom was able to contact the second pair (who was walking) and the two pairs weren’t able to talk to each other. We think that these issues have been caused by the air humidity and by interferences from the radio relay. We will work again to fix that and will try it during a sunny EVA. However, our commander succeeded to use his sextant for his positioning experiment during the EVA, even if the temperature tended to decalibrate it. The fog on our helmets started to be a big issue so we finally got back to the Hab as nobody could see and, so, drive the rovers.

EVA Report
EVA#2, Sol 4

Crew members: Louis Maller (EVA leader), Xavier Rixon, Victoria Da-Poian,and Louis Mangin (EVA buddies)
Habcom : Arthur Lillo

Departure time:  9:04 AM
Return time: 11:48 PM

Location: North of the Hab (12N 521000, 4251000) in Candor Chasma, and South (12N 519500 4248500)

Purposes:
– Around the Hab exploration
– EVA training for newcomers
– PR photos inside the picturesque Condor Chasma
– Training in basic non-vocal communication inspired from diving procedures
– Ergonomy test for the new generation ORA-2 Optinvent glasses (confort, screen visibility, autonomy)

Summary:
For most of the team on EVA today, this one was a first EVA, meant to train them, get used to the spacesuit and different EVA gear.
We left almost on time, after an EVA prep a lot shorter thanks to the work of our engineer who gave a lot of thought into how to optimize the process.
The engineering check was also optimized and thus swiftly done, so we could leave on the EVA by 9:14
We used the rovers and were due north, found the road leading towards condor chasma without any problem, and as I remembered the spot quite well, parked not far from the entrance of the canyon. We started exploring the canyon at approximatively 9:40 We descended into it and explored for something like an hour, taking pictures and videos on the way. It is a really out-of-the world scenery, that I was glad to explore a second time. Some crewmembers experienced heavy fogging inside their helmets, which makes walking in this canyon where the footing is a bit tricky all the more challenging. After a while, I decided to turn back, thinking mistakenly that the road further south would be closer to the canyon and allow to take some shots of it from above.
Instead, we rapidly lost the road as it meanders in riverbeds, so we stopped, did a pause for some pictures over a quite beautiful landscape and then went back. We had some time left, so I decided to head for white rock Canyon on the South, from where I was certain that it would be possible to take some shots from the ridge. Unfortunately, I had misjudged the distances, which are greater south of the Hab, and we stopped not far from a ridge… which was two-meters deep. I then decided that the EVA had lasted enough, especially since the walk in the canyon had been tiring for everyone, even if the ride on the rovers had taken care of the fogging issue.
Therefore we were back at the Hab a bit earlier than expected (11:48) but had an interesting EVA, which, aside from the pictures, was the occasion to test basic functions of the glasses (displaying the time), and assessing how high the issue of screen visibility was (and the discomfort of not being able to use sunglasses).