Crew 297 EVA Report 21-04-2024
EVA #9
Author: Matthew Lynch (Engineer)
Purpose of EVA: Perform the third ‘hiding’ EVA for the nuclear power project. Two members of Team A will go into the field and place the NPS for Team B to find on a future EVA. Potential NPS burial sites and geological sites of interest will also be observed.
Start time: 9:57 am
End time: 12:39 pm
Narrative: Starting on time and exiting the airlock, we placed the NPS in the back of Opportunity and headed North. As expected, the battery was at 55% when we were halfway down Brahe Highway. We parked the rover and saw what appeared to be a road heading North, we mistook this for route 1575 and attempted to follow this to reach the sea of shells, eventually realizing our error we circled back and followed the real road until we reached the moon overlook and eventually the sea of shells at 11:45 AM. We analyzed the area for potential digging sites and the ground looked excellent. However there were minimal ideal spots for placing the NPS. We began the walk back to the rovers and determined our best course of action was to not place the NPS, as the day was getting very hot, our EVA suit batteries were draining, and critically there were minimal good spots in the terrain to place the NPS. We returned back to the Hab at 12:40 PM. It should be noted there are some discrepancies between the MDRS map, the routes on the ground, and the Bureau of Land Management road markers, this was the primary cause for the challenges in reaching the Sea of Shells.
Destination: Sea of Shells area
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 425500 N 516500 E
Participants: Matthew Lynch (Engineer), Matthew Storch (XO)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110 & Brahe Highway
Mode of travel: Rover Opportunity and walking.