2022-2023 Field Season (#22)

EVA #3 Report of Sol 3

EVA briefing took longer than expected. The fans on Space Suits #1 and #4 didn’t seem to be working properly. The LED lights for the attached chargers are currently displaying a red light. This will be touched on further in the engineering report. The stated purpose of our EVA was to test out the 3-D scanner on the field. Since it’s not operating properly at this time, we decided to bring two specimens back to the hab, so that they can be scanned here at a later time.

We finished decompression at 12:40 PM. We received a new shipment of gasoline for ATVs before our EVA. Ashton refueled all the ATVs from our activities from Sol 2. He completed refueling by about 12:50 PM. Toruwa and I took the rover, and Dean and Ashton followed in the ATVs. The Journey to the Stream Connector stop area took approximately 5 minutes

Once we parked, we walked about 50 meters to our first specimen, a softball-sized piece of green sandstone. We then found another suitable specimen, about the size of a small firewood log. We photographed and marked each site we extracted from, with plans to return these samples to there original locations at a later time. We returned to our Rovers by 1:20 PM, and began our recompression by 1:30 PM at the Hab.

We need to be clearer on the decompression / recompression time, as the inner airlock door was opened one minute earlier than it should have. I would recommend that the “official” decompression time be tracked by the occupants of the hab, as soon as the go-ahead is given by the EVA party.

Conditions outside were much warmer than expected. It’s a good thing our walking activities lasted for only about 40 minutes.

Communications between the members of the EVA party were concise and effective. Our Commander gave us phonetic alphabet designations based on our first name; for example Dean would be “Delta” and Ashton “Alpha”.

The EVA went smoothly and we accomplished all that we set out to do.

This is all I have to report.
Have a good night mission support!

Prepared by Brandon Ferguson
EVA Officer

EVA #2 Report of Sol 2

We started our EVA at 11:50 AM. Jordan, Ashton, Toluwa, and I, each took an ATV, carrying cameras and other supplies in backpacks. We first stopped near the Stream Turnout Rd, and walked about 200 meters to an area with a large amount of dinosaur bones and petrified wood specimens. We spent about an hour in this area before heading north.

We arrived at the Lith Canyon turnout by about 12:20 PM. From here, we walked into the Lith Canyon area, careful not to step in the cactus gardens along the way.

We spent 2 hours here, exploring and photographing this area. There is a feature that is labeled on the map, called “The Pillar”, where the Copernicus Hwy North used to extend to. Although there are many features in this area that could fit this description, we found one particularly prominent column that could be “The Pillar”. We’ll have to investigate this further.

We returned to our ATVs by around 3:00 PM, getting back to the hab by 3:25 PM.

Have a great night Mission Support!

Prepared by Brandon Ferguson