Crew 279 EVA Report 07-04-2023
EVA # 5
Author: Ttele Hiriart, Health and safety officer
Purpose of EVA:
This EVA was useful for 2 experiments:
Crew Scientist’s experience:
Like the measurements he made near the base, this time he focused on a particularly old area with a lot of fossils. Thanks to a scintillator, he performed occasional measurements of radioactivity (gamma emission). The area was vast to cover, he focused particularly on the fossils present but also measured the soil and took samples (only soil, not fossils). He was helped by Antoine who noted and guided him.
GreenHab officer’s experience:
As the drone unfortunately crashed the last time, Augustin maped a canyon. He took advantage of going out with Thomas to map an area of interest that is “Special Region”. As the drone crashed, Ttele supported him to help Augustin to see the drone and avoid a second crash.
The main objective of this EVA was therefore to pool Augustin’s maps and Thomas’ radioactivity measurements to create a 3D map of the activity and we thought it was an interesting region for mapping and for measurements of fossil radioactivity. They are parts that are old and therefore normally have a low radiation rate (like C11). We tried to see the difference with the measures taken with loana from Hab.
Start time: 9h08
End time: 12h39
Narrative :
This morning, we woke up with good energy. After a nice breakfast, the EVA team got prepared, with all the material we needed for the two experiments of Thomas and Augustin.
We went out of the sass at 9h08 and got to the rovers Cury and Spirit. We drove until the destination without a problem, meeting different kinds of martians on their big trucks. They were very curious about us. We lost contact with the hab after north ridge.
We arrived at the Special Region at 9h36, parked the rovers and started walking. We all went into the canyon, looking for places for the measurement of Thomas, and a good place for the drone to start flying. Thomas found several corners where the radiation datas were interesting, mostly in the ground of the canyon. Augustin managed to make a first 11 min flight with the drone, to make a video of the first area he needed. Then, we realized there were small caves, or recesses in the wall. We then mapped these places and took pictures to compare them.
We managed to join Thomas and Augustins experiments, by using different key points in the map. This made possible the matching of their information for the 3D cartography. The drone functioned very well, responding to the application as expected.
We walked in the canyon or above, during most of the time of the EVA according to Augustin’s and Thomas plans. Antoine helped Thomas for his mesures, and I supported Augustin with the drone, carrying the material and making sure the drone is always visible.
After a turning in the canyon, the narrowness of the place was replaced by a very big landscape. With a lot of luck, Thomas found a very big fossil of an old tree, stuck in the wall of the canyon. He made several measures and realized that the radiation of the fossil was higher than expected. He noted the radioactivity as mid-high, with the techniques of count rate.
We were very excited about it, and felt very lucky to witness such an old part of the earth.
After all these adventures, we went back to the rovers. At 12h07, we started to come back to the base. We met other Martians again, but they didn’t look very surprised to meet us.
We got in contact with the base again, and arrived at the hab, checked the rovers and took all our material and at 12h39 we got into the airlock.
At 12h44 we got out of it, and with the help of our crew mates that stayed in the hab, we took out all the equipment.
We were very happy with this EVA and very excited to explain our discoveries to the rest of the team.
Destination: Special Region
Coordinates (use UTM WSG 84): 518200 E ,4256000 N
EVA Participants: Ttele (EVA Leader) (HSO), Antoine (Commander), Augustin (GreenHab), Thomas (Scientist)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel:
Drive to the cross of Cow Dung Road 0110 and Gateway to Lith then walking to the Special Region.