Crew 297 EVA Report 16-04-2024
EVA #3
Author: Matthew Lynch (Engineer)
Purpose of EVA: Perform the first EVA for the nuclear power deployment project. Mission support provided a simulated landing site for the NPS. The Crew Commander gave an approximate landing site, which was to be within 300 m from the real location. This EVA utilized known searching methods to find the NPS. Once found, NPS is collected and a new simulated landing site will be selected and recorded for the next EVA crew to recover. A potential secondary objective of testing excavation for the NPS was also added.
Start time: 1:40pm
End time: 5:09pm
Narrative: The initial GPS coordinates given to us provided a 300m radius search area, centered on the hab. Suiting up and leaving the habitat went as expected. After depositing our heavier equipment (shovel & pickaxe) into the rovers we made our way to north of the Hab and began on the footpath there to seek higher ground. We climbed the significant hills in this area and saw no signs of the NPS, then proceeded to fan out and move south/south-east around our search area. After ~40 minutes on foot, We saw a highly reflective object in the far distance and elected to return to our rovers and drive towards it. We reached the boundary of the search area and the object was still significantly far so it was assumed to not be the target. From here we began another search on foot of the North to South-east region of our expected landing zone. After ~90 minutes of searching HABCOM updated our search region to 100m. After a further 60 minutes of unsuccessful searching it was discovered that a technical error had led to the wrong GPS coordinates being used. Once corrected, HABCOM provided us with the actual NPS landing spot, approximately 1km to the south of the hab. We made our way there with the rovers and found the NPS in its expected location. On the way back to the hab we successfully placed the NPS in a new landing spot at [REDACTED] for tomorrow’s EVA to search for. Many aliens were observed today.
Destination: NPS expected landing area #1
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 518083N 4250076E (Actual NPS landing location)
Participants: Matthew Lynch (Engineer), Matthew Storch (XO), Sean Marquez (Greenhab Officer)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: Driving 2 rovers (Curiosity & Opportunity) and walking.