Category: EVA Report

EVA #2

Author: Matthew Lynch (Engineer)

Purpose of EVA: This was the initial training EVA for the second half of our crew. The goal was to go to Marble Ritual, briefly explore the immediate area, and return to the hab.

Start time: 4:00pm

End time: 4:55pm

Narrative: After suiting up for the first time we made our way to the airlock. We unplugged Curiosity (Matt L. + Dave) and Opportunity (Matt S.) was already unplugged. We made our way to Marble Ritual and each added a martian stone to the containers. Enjoying our first EVA, we performed some brief exploration of the area in the immediate vicinity. We saw several alien tourists observing the hab, some interesting rocks that we collected for geological inspection, and some extremely large semi-humanoid footprints that we photographed for analysis. Return to the rovers and the hab was done with no issues.

Destination: Marble Ritual

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 4250957 N 518615 E

Participants: Matthew Lynch (Engineer), Dave Laude (Journalist), Matthew Storch (XO)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110

Mode of travel: Driving 2 rovers (Curiosity & Opportunity) and walking.

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.

EVA #15
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: This EVA will be focused on Romain Maddox’s experiment. On Sol 1, he took the baseline for his experiment, this time, he will do the fourth data collection and will continue on SOL12 with the rest of the team. The 3 crew members will continue the experiment by controlling a drone (Parrot Anafi) and doing 8 maneuvers with an estimate of 7 minutes per flight and per person and the same place that they did last time, Marble Ritual. Crew members will stay in a radius of about 60m around the rover. They should only go at around 20 meters but as we experienced last time, if the drone has a malfunction and crashes, we might need the 60 meter radius. Anyway, we will contact the Main Hab before exceeding 20 meters.
Start time: 9am
End time: 10:01am
Narrative: We drove to Marble Ritual as usual. Once there, we performed Romain’s experiment. Romain went first, then Arnaud, Imane and Alba last. During Arnaud’s turn, he roughly crashed the drone. Despite the missing two wings, Romain, with his craftsmanship, managed to repair the drone and completed the EVA. Nothing unplanned occurred until the end of the manipulation. Once it was done, we drove back to the hab.
Destination: Marble Ritual
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 4251000 518750
Participants: Romain Maddox (Commander), Alba Sánchez Montalvo (Journalist), Imane El Bakkali (Health and Safety Officer) and Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: Driving 2 rovers (Perseverance and Opportunity) and Walking

EVA #17
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: This EVA will be focused on Romain Maddox’s experiment. On Sol 1, he took the baseline for his experiment, this time, he will do the fourth data collection with the rest of the team. The 5 last crew members will continue the experiment by controlling a drone (Parrot Anafi) and doing 8 maneuvers with an estimate of 7 minutes per flight and per person and the same place that they did last time, Marble Ritual. Crew members will stay in a radius of about 60m around the rover. They should only go at around 20 meters but as we experienced last time, if the drone has a malfunction and crashes, we might need the 60 meter radius. Anyway, we will contact the Main Hab before exceeding 20 meters.
Start time: 8:30am
End time:
Narrative: As usual, we got ready for an EVA. But it wasnt a usual one. It was the last one that marked the end of our mission here on Mars. Once we got out, we enjoyed the view, took the rovers and drove to Marble Ritual. It was so commun but so special this time. It was like time was going a bit slower. We arrived at the location and performed the last 4 flights. Everything was nominal. We drove back to what was our home for the last two months and entered the sas for the last time. During the decompression we glanced a last time to this red surface, this land of dream hoping the adventure wasnt finished. But the opening of the inside door broke that hope. Thank you Mars for all you gave us but it is time to go back to the mother of all life, Mother Earth.
Destination: Marble Ritual
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 4251000 518750
Participants: Romain Maddox (Commander), Hippolyte Hilgers (Green Hab Officer), Lorraine Baes (Executive Officer), Maxime Foucart (Astronomer) and Louis Joseph (Engineer
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: Driving 3 rovers (Opportunity, Perseverance and Spirit) and walking.

EVA #10
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: This EVA will be focused on Romain Maddox’s experiment. On Sol 1, he took the baseline for his experiment, this time, he will do the second data collection and will continue on SOL11 and 12. The 5 crew members will continue the experiment by controlling a drone (Parrot Anafi) and doing 8 maneuvers with an estimate of 7 minutes per flight and per person and the same place that they did last time, Marble Ritual. Crew members will stay in a radius of about 60m around the rover. They should only go at around 20 meters but as we experienced last time, if the drone has a malfunction and crashes, we might need the 60 meter radius. Anyway, we will contact the Main Hab before exceeding 20 meters.
Start time: 8:06am
End time: 8:50am
Narrative: We got out at exactly 8 o’clock and directly went to Marble ritual. We didn’t want to waste time since near noon, the eclipse would be at its highest. Once we arrived at the location, we all flew the drone as intended with no problems. We headed back home and finished one of the shortest EVA’s. A quick but really efficient EVA.
Destination: Marble Ritual
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 4251000 518750
Participants: Romain Maddox (Commander), Maxime Foucart (Astronomer), Louis Joseph (Engineer), Imane El Bakkali (Health and Safety Officer) and Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: Driving 3 vehicles (Spirit, Curiosity and Perseverance) and walking

EVA #12
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: We’ll park the rovers south of Compass Rock and walk to Candor Chasma to fly Louis’ drone to have a few shots of the surroundings. If the landscape allows it, he will also perform automatic flights for his own experiment. Then, if the time isn’t a limiting factor, the crew plans to take back the rovers to ride half the distance between Compass Rock and Somerville Overlook along Galileo Road 1104. The remaining travel towards Somerville Overlook will be performed by foot. From there, a drone flight will be performed. Finally, the crew will come back to the rovers and head back to the station.
Start time: 9:01am
End time: 11:40am
Narrative: We parked our rovers at the foot of the compass rock. We then headed for the Condor Chasma entrance to fly Louis’ drone and take a few more photos. Compared with EVA#9, we covered a longer distance inside Candor Chasma and then rejoined our rovers. We then waited about twenty minutes for Louis to make two automatic flights with the drone to establish a reconnaissance of the area. Finally, we made our way back, stopping at a few viewpoints to take videos and photos.
Destination: Compass Rock, Candor Chasma and then Somerville Overlook initially but we haven’t be able to find the path between Compass Rock and Somerville Overlook
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84):
4252000 520000 (Compass Rock)
4251150 520400 (Entrance of Candor Chasma)
4253000 522000 (Somerville Overlook)
Participants: Louis Joseph (Engineer), Alba Sánchez Montalvo (Journalist), Hippolyte Hilgers (Green Hab Officer) and Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110 and Galileo Road 1104
Mode of travel: Driving 2 rovers (Spirit and Curiosity) and walking

EVA #14
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: Our goal is to explore as well as find fossilized wood and shells. We are going to walk west from the Hab to join Hab Ridge Road and then explore in a 500m radius direction ranging from South South West to North North West. Our goal in this area is to find the fossilized shells. We will do that by looking for rocks and formations that are propice to fossilization and open them with Maxime’s Geological Hammer. Once we finish our gathering and after we inform the Hab, we will hike back down to the station, and take the rover to Roberts Rock Garden. It will be an approximate 800m ride. Once we arrive there, we will leave the rover and go in a radius of about 300m from the rover. We still don’t exactly know the direction because we will see what are the best locations there. In any case, we will send our Hab the direction once we decide on the ground. We will look for different types of fossils like Wood. Once the gathering is done, we will immediately head back home and finish the EVA
Start time: 3:05pm
End time: 6:01pm
Narrative: We got out under the hot sun at 16h08 and started to climb West Ridge. Once on top, we walked to the road and while we were doing that, we understood that all the rocks that we were walking on were in fact shells. Fossilized shells! It was completely impressive and mind blowing. Once we finished gathering a couple bags of these precious artifacts of the past, we decided to as planned to drive the rovers to Roberts Rock Garden to find fossilized wood. And with some dedication, we found a couple of ones. After that, it was time to head back and share our findings with the crew.
Destination: Hab ridge by walking and Then Roberts Rock Garden
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84):
4250600 517800 (Hab ridge)
4249300 518400 (Roberts Rock Garden)
Participants: Maxime Foucart (Astronomer) and Romain Maddox (Commander)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Walking West to get to Hab Ridge then East to come back to the Hab. Then Cow Dung Road 0110 South
Mode of travel: Driving (Curiosity) and walking

EVA #8
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA:
The first part of the EVA is going to be maintenance for the weather station located at 4251250,518500. They will take the rovers towards Pooh’s corner and park them there, then walk 100 meters west towards the weather station. The high winds of today may have caused some damage and the cameras have probably recorded interesting dust formations, we would also like to know if it properly recorded it.
Then, the EVA crew will go back to the rovers parked at Pooh’s Corner and continue towards the North to reach the intersection between Cow Dung Road 0110 and Brahe Hwy 1572. Geological maps indicate this region to be interesting for the discovery of fossils. We will park the rovers there and then perform a geological survey in a radius of a maximum of 1 km around the rovers. We will be very careful of the charge of the rovers and not let it reach below 50% during the trip towards the destination.
Start time: 9:10am
End time: 11:50am
Narrative:
The EVA crew successfully reached the station after having parked their rover at Pooh’s Corner, and it indeed suffered some damage from the high winds that occurred during the last days: the Wind indicator that was replaced during the EVA #4 was ripped off by the high winds. Luckily, it did not fly far from the station and with the use of duct tape, has been successfully repaired for a second time. A quick check of the recording of the cameras showed very good results; the high winds indeed were recorded. After the maintenance on the station was completed, we went back to the rover and drove until the intersection between Cow Dung Road 0110 and Brahe Hwy 1572 for a geological survey of the area. The team first found a big amount of gypsum and collected some samples, and then went out in the search of some fossils. The EVA team searched thoroughly the area and walked approximately 500 meters south-east from the intersection but sadly did not find any fossils. After looping back to the road, the team drove back the rovers to the hab with the samples of Gypsum to analyze later.
Destination: Weather Station and Intersection between Cow Dung Road 0110 and Brahe Hwy 1572
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84):
Weather Station : 4251250,518500
Intersection between Cow Dung Road 0110 and Brahe Hwy 1572: 4254750, 517750
Participants: Romain Maddox (Commander), Loriane Baes (Executive Officer), Maxime Foucart (Astronomer), Hippolyte Hilgers (Green Hab Officer)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110, Brahe Hwy 1572 (intersection)
Mode of travel: Driving and walking (Curiosity and Opportunity)

EVA #9
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA: Discovery of new landscapes for future EVAs and taking pictures
Start time: 9:31am
End time: 11:30am
Narrative: We headed for the compass rock where we parked the rovers. We took some photos at this rock and then descended into the Candor Chasma to visit the area and take some photos and videos in order to carry out reconnaissance for future EVAs.
Destination: Candor Chasma
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 425200 520000
Participants: Loriane Baes (Executive Officer), Imane El Bakkali (Health and safety Officer), Alba Sánchez Montalvo (Journalist) and Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110 and Galileo Road 1104 (We’ve parked the rovers near compass rock and walked to Candor Chasma)
Mode of travel: Rovers (Perseverance and Opportunity) and Walking

EVA #3
Author: Arnaud de Wergifosse (Scientist)
Purpose of EVA:
The EVA will be composed of 4 crew members. Maxime and Loriane will work on Maxime’s experiment. They will use the Curiosity rover. Louis and Hippolyte will work on Louis’ experiment and they will use the Spirit rover. They will all go to the same location.
Maxime’s experiment:
Setting up the weather station for a personal experiment. I have chosen a location near the lab that could yield interesting results and that has visibility from the hab so that I can check if my weather station can withstand the harsh environment. Firstly, we will have to go to the RAM (depressurising it), take the weather mast, load it into one of the rovers and secure it using ropes. We will drive towards North Ridge and park the rover at the level of Pooh’s Corner and then go west on foot to set up the weather station, at ~200 meters maximum from the rover. After the weather station is set up and running, we further investigate the area west of Pooh’s corner to check the dust conditions and then go back to the rover and drive north, to Cowboy’s Corner, to take pictures and pick a new location for the weather station when it will be moved in 2 days. We will probably walk at max 500 meters from the Rover to check the conditions of the soil and dust.
Louis’ experiment:
After the first day of test and reconnaissance flights during SOL1. Louis’ experiment will now focus on the first tests of automatic flights with the most basic flight parameters. He decided to further explore the area at the North of the Hab (North Ridge). The drone will now take a predefined amount of pictures over the selected study areas. The goals are to evaluate the consequences of the relief and weather conditions on the variability in the captured pictures. This automated flight will be realized by using another control software than the one used during SOL1: PIX4Dcapture. This application allows to predefine a specific flight area over which the drone will take pictures at the same altitude and with a constante overlap between each picture. If this basic set of parameters is working, more customized flights will be realized, increasing the quality of future captured products.
Start time: 2:02pm
End time: 4:29pm
Narrative:
To perform this EVA, the crew members had to exit the station through the RAM to take Maxime’s weather station outside. The weather station mount was secured securely to the rover (Curiosity) and we drove without any issues toward Pooh’s Corner. Unfortunately, during the trip the weather station itself suffered some damages, with the loss of the wind direction indicator. Despite this setback, the weather station was set up west of Pooh’s corner, at exactly (in UTM WGS 84): 4251250,518500. The movement cameras were turned on and secured. The weather station operated smoothly, except for a message about low battery. The issue of the wind indicator and the low battery will be solved during the following EVA.
On his side, Louis had struggles with setting up his experiment. At first, the drone wouldn’t take off because of magnetic interference even though the drone was isolated on the ground. After a few minutes of troubleshooting with Hippolyte’s help, the drone was able to take off. More research needs to be done to correctly understand the met controlling problem. The drone was used to perform its first automatic flight with basic parameters. This flight proved the feasibility of the basic experiment requirements.
The crew members then headed back to the rovers parked on the side of the road near Pooh’s corner. Then, they took the direction of Cowboy corner to explore the area and take pictures and videos using the drone. Due to some map reading errors, the crew actually stopped on the side of the road near North Ridge and decided to finally climb the small hills of the area to observe the surroundings for future EVAs and to capture pictures/videos. Crew members then took their rovers back to come back to the HAB and end today’s EVA.
Destination: Pooh’s corner, North Ridge, Cowboy’s Corner
Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84):
First stop : 4251500, 518500
Second stop : 425200, 518800
Participants: Maxime Foucart (Astronomer), Louis Joseph (Engineer), Loriane Baes (Executive officer) and Hippolyte Hilgers (Green Hab officer)
Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110
Mode of travel: 2 vehicles (Curiosity and Spirit)