MARS DESERT RESEARCH STATION

MDRS is a project of:

EVA Report – January 22nd

EVA Report:
SOL: 7
Date: 22/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Michaela Musilova
Crew members involved in the EVA: Idriss Sisaid and Michaela Musilova
EVA leader: Michaela Musilova
Begin: 9:30 am
End: 12:37 pm
Type of EVA: ATVs + Walking
Purpose: Conducting sampling of hypoliths and regolith south of MDRS.
UTM Coordinates: 4249100  Easting :  518000 Zone : 12 S
Summary: Several hypolith samples were collected and different types of regolith (soil) samples were collected for inspection in the Science Dome.

EVA Report – January 21st

EVA Report:
SOL: 6
Date: 21/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Roy Naor
Crew members involved in the EVA: Roy Naor, Michaela Musilova
EVA leader: Michaela Musilova
Begin: 2:00pm
End: 15:55 pm
Type of EVA: Walking + ATV 350, ATV 350
Purpose: : Carbonate mineral prospecting and sampling, together with endolith prospecting and sampling
UTM Coordinates: UTM 12S 518231e 4250725n NAD27
Summary: We got to the same locations from Sol 1 EVA to make a better scientific documantation. This time we took GPS coordinates for each site and wrote all comments. We took several pictures of each outcrope and draw it in the notbook.
All the sampled sandstone outcrops are at the same level of stratigraphy in the Brushy Basing member of Morisson Formation and interpeted by Clarke & Stoker as anastomosing fixed fluvial channels.
The carbonates in the sandstones apear as concritions and cements and assumed to originated in latter diagenesys.
Michaela found another good outcrop for endolith samples and she collected some more from the site of EVA 1.

EVA Report – January 19th

EVA Report
SOL: 4
Date: 19/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Roy Naor
Crew members involved in the EVA: Roy Naor, Richard Blake
EVA leader: Roy Naor
Begin: 10:00pm
End: 12:30 pm
Type of EVA: Walking + ATV 300, ATV 350
Purpose: Conducting a transect sampling along the Brushy basin member slope  for the Israeli educational experiment and retrieving back the rovers from the point were they were left on the 18th.
UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4251100  Easting :  518000 Zone : 12 S
Summary: We’ve transected the slopes bottom to top by sampling rockes from each different color layer. The samples will be sent to Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, where the youth scientists will analyze thier properties.  Team PRIMA succeeded in yet another one of their projects, as this reaserch was aimed at outreach for STEAM education. The ATVs are back and safe, hibernating as they are slowly covering by snow at the moment.

EVA Report – January 18th

EVA Report:
SOL: 3
Date: 18/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Roy Naor
Crew members involved in the EVA: Roy Naor, Michaela Musilova
EVA leader: Michaela Musilova
Begin: 01:00pm
End: 04:41 pm
Type of EVA: ATV 300, ATV 350+Walking
Purpose: Carbonate prospecting and sampling in Dakota sandstone and Mancos shale
UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4251500  Easting :  515000 Zone : 12 S
Summary: The road named Copernicus highway, which crosses the Dakota formation plane, is a very bad road. Hence, it took us much more time to get there than originally planned. In the end, we realized we wouldn’t be able to get back to the Hab on time before sunset, so we parked the two ATVs right at the Repeater Point, north to Radio ridge and got down back to the Hab by foot.
However, we were quite successful with retrieving some good carbonates and endolith samples from the regolith of dakota formation and a bolder of ferron sandstone which fell to the foot of Skyline Rim.

EVA Report – January 17th

EVA Report:

SOL: 2

Date: 17/01/2017

Person filling out the report: Roy Naor

Crew members involved in the EVA: Roy Naor, Richard Blake, Idriss sissaid

EVA leader: Roy Naor

Begin: 02:00pm

End: 04:38 pm

Type of EVA: Phobos, ATV 300, ATV 350+Walking

Purpose: Carbonate prospecting and sampling in the salt wash member and Sumervile Formation

UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4251500  Easting :  519000 Zone : 12 S     

Summary: We recommend having more detailed topografic maps 1:50,000 scale or lower in order to do proper geological/biological work. It is very weird to work without a map.We will try to make do with the ones that we were given for now.
I looked for concreations but found only cemented sand stones.
We walked the Candor Chasma from the main road to the sharp river bend after Tree Gate.

EVA Report – January 16th

EVA Report
SOL: 1
Date: 16/01/2017
Person filling out the report: Roy Naor
Crew members involved in the EVA: Roy Naor, Michaela Musilova, Niamh Shaw
EVA leader: Michaela Musilova
Begin: 02:00pm
End: 04:40pm
Type of EVA: Walking
Purpose: exploring the vicinity of the hab and sample carbonate minerals
UTM Coordinates: Northing : 4251400  Easting :  518900 Zone : 12 S
Summary: We learned a lot about how EVA works in terms of communication and physiology.
We sampled 4 different sandstone outcrops in the Brushy basin member of Morisson formation for its carbonates cements and concritions, and one sample of eroded sandstone (regolith) for our ISRU 3d printing project.

EVA Report – January 10th

SOL: 09

Earth date: 10/01/2017

Person filling out the report: Gwendal Hénaff

Crew members involved in the EVA: Gwendal Hénaff, Patrick Gray, Pierrick Loyers

EVA leader: Gwendal Hénaff

Begin: 14:30 am

End: 17:00 am

Type of EVA: Driving and Hiking

 Purpose: 3D cartography measurements

UTM Coordinates:          Northing: 4252073 Easting: 520369 Zone/Sector: 12S

Northing: 4252066 Easting: 517460 Zone/Sector: 12S

Summary:

Due to the bad weather conditions and following Shannon’s advice, we postponed the EVA to the afternoon. The objective was to reach Green Mars View but due to the risk of rain, we decided to stop closer, nearby Dinosaur Quarry. We get the necessary elevation measurements to scan the subsurface in the next days. Everything went fine. We went back to the hab 2 hours and 30 minutes after the beginning of the EVA. We noticed lot of mud on both Deimos and the ATV due to the wet areas we had to cross on the road. The sun was already low, and we decided to postpone the cleaning to tomorrow morning.

EVA Report – January 9th

EVA Report:

SOL: 08

Earth date: 09/01/2017

Person filling out the report: Pierrick Loyers

Crew members involved in the EVA: Gwendal Hénaff, Patrick Gray, Pierrick Loyers

EVA leader: Pierrick Loyers

Begin: 10.00 am

End: 11.30 am

Type of EVA: Walking

Purpose: 3D cartography measurements

UTM Coordinates:          Northing: 4252073 Easting: 520369 Zone/Sector: 12S

Northing: 4252066 Easting: 517460 Zone/Sector: 12S

Summary: Improvement of the cartography system have been made and now, it is functional. We didn’t use rover or ATVs because snow and mud could be dangerous. We walked to the plateau just next to the Hab and we continue until the point Northing: 4252073 Easting: 520369 Zone/Sector: 12S.

Hiking with the flight suit and back pack wasn’t an easy task but totally worth the view. The EVA last only 1h30 because our helmets were very foggy.

EVA Report – January 4th

Date: 04/01/2017

EVA Leader: Ilaria Cinelli

Crew members involved in the EVA: Patrick Gray, Pierrick Loyers, Nicholas McCay, Anushree Srivastava

Begin: 10.00 am

End: 12.10 pm

Type of EVA: Walking

Purpose: Exploration for collection of geological samples

Coordinates: 4152000N 110.78W

Purpose: Today EVA starts at 10, sharp. After the engineering check, we started to walk to Galileo road. This was a long walk that my EVA team really appreciates. They have the chance to get used to the suit walking on rocky and sandy soil in long distance walk (in a stunning desert!). We took a long walk to identify locations that were closer to river paths. A few samples were collected on plane sandy soil to measure its dielectric properties.

EVA Report – January 3rd

EVA Report:

SOL: 02

Date: 03/01/2017

Person filling out the report: Gwendal Hénaff

Crew members involved in the EVA: Nicholas McCay, Gwendal Hénaff, Pierrick Loyers

EVA leader: Gwendal Hénaff

Duration : from 1000 – 1240 earth mountain time

Type of EVA: Walking

Purpose: Preliminary tests of the scientific equipment

Coordinates: 38.245N 110.485W to 38.26N 110.47W

 

Summary:

We started this EVA right on time : 1000 sharp. After the engineering checks, we headed up to the rovers and started our ride to the location named as “Tank”. Having the unit control of the ground penetration radar, I wasn’t able to drive and took the right seat on Deimos. Pierrick was driving Deimos and Nicholas was driving one of the ATV’s. At some point were out of radio range and losted contact with HabCom. We then started looking for water traces in the area and decided to start scanning the subsurface.

We had lot of troubles with our Space Packs: Our helmets were really foggy due to the condensation, and it was really difficult for the EVA team to pursue the experiments. Pierrick’s HUD and radio fell off in his helmet and the end of the EVA was really uncomfortable for him. Half way the EVA we were again able to contact HabCom and report them our status.

We then headed back to the vehicles and started to go back to the Hab. We stopped 500 meters before the Hab to find a way to attached the Groud Penetrating Radar’s antennas at the vehicles to make the scanning easier when we’re on the road. An incident happened : to keep the incident anonymous, astronauts will be designed by numbers.

Astronaut 2 and 3 were trying to attached the antennas on Deimos. Astronaut 2 was just between the ATV and Deimos. Astronaut 1 decided to move the ATV away to have more room for work. When he turned the ATV on, the gear was on neutral. After he switched to reverse, the ATV bumped into Astronaut 2, which was stuck between the ATV and Deimos for one to two seconds. Due to the quick reaction of the crew, the ATV was stopped. Astronaut 2 was hurt but able to walk with help. We decided to not break the sim and abort the EVA, which was almost over ; the incident  happened at 1240. We reached the Hab and checked the leg of Astronaut 2, which was fine : just small injuries.