Category: EVA Report

Crew 297 EVA 17 Report 25-4-2024

EVA #17

Author: Dave Laude

Purpose of EVA: Examine the region for geological exploration and to examine Candor Chasma’s unique terrain and obstacles to NPS locating and recovery.

Start Time: 3:00 PM

End Time: 5:35 PM

Narrative: The EVA team road rover Opportunity to Somerville Overlook to acquire telephoto photos of the sedimentary rock layers in the walls of the escarpments. The view was stunning, like that of a nascent Grand Canyon, complete with the Canyon’s range of Earth tone colors. As the weather turned cloudier and windier the team headed back towards MDRS, but made a planned stop at Chandor Chasma for additional photos of stratigraphy and rocks. These were then uploaded to our Crew’s website for later analysis by Crew Geologist Sarah. Terrain was examined for NPS recovery and was found extremely difficult for such an operation.

Destination: Candor Chasma and Somerville Overlook

Coordinates:

4251150 520400 (West Entrance of Candor Chasma)

4253000 522000 (Somerville Overlook)

EVA Participants: Dave Laude (EVA Leader/Journalist/Engineer), Matt Lynch (Engineer)

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

Mode of travel: Driving Opportunity + Walking

Crew 297 EVA 18 Report 26-4-2024

EVA #18

Author: Sarah Lamm

Purpose of EVA: To observe the region that appears purple from orbit. This location has also been referred to as Purple Mountain. This will be the last EVA for geological purposes, as well as the last EVA for Crew 297.

Start Time: 11:06 AM

End Time: 12:50 PM

Narrative: Due to wind conditions, we drove Opportunity and Curiosity to North Ridge. We walked to the southwest part of North Ridge and began to hike up to the peak. On the way up we observed green shale, various colors of regolith, and tan sandstone. We were able to observe lots of sandstone that had fallen from the higher layers. On the way down we came through the saddle on the south side.

Destination: Northern Ridge

Coordinates: 12S 518483 4251766

Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander), Matt Storch (Executive Officer), Matt Lynch (Engineer), and Sarah Lamm (Geologist)

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

Mode of travel: Opportunity & Curiosity ; Walking

Crew 297 EVA Report 23-04-2024

EVA #15

Author: Matthew Lynch (Engineer)

Purpose of EVA: Perform an expedition EVA to new areas to bury the NPS on a later EVA. The areas to the west can only be explored via walking. We will also be recovering the unfound NPS from EVA #12.

Start time: 11:28 am

End time: 2:44 pm

Narrative: After a slightly delayed start we left the airlock and entered Curiosity. Driving North until we reached the expected NPS hiding spot we parked the rover and continued on foot. With the exact coordinates for the NPS we recovered it quickly, although it was hidden in an extremely challenging spot by the previous team. At 12:16 pm we returned to the Hab and began our on-foot journey to Skyline Rim. By 12:40 we had reached the top of the ridge line behind MDRS, and continued with our long march across the Amazonis Planitia. We reached the Skyline Rim and proceeded with our ground testing to determine the feasibility of burying the NPS in this region. With testing complete we headed back to the Hab, returning at 2:44 pm.

Destination: NPS Site #4A & Skyline Rim

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 517477N 4254656E

EVA Participants: Matt Lynch (Engineer), Matt Storch (XO)

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

Mode of travel: Driving + Walking

Vehicles you will be using (If applicable): Curiosity

Crew 297 EVA Report 23-04-2024

EVA #12

Author: Matthew Lynch (Engineer)

Purpose of EVA: Perform the fourth and possible last ‘seeking’ EVA for the nuclear power project.

Start time: 8:34 am

End time: 11:10 pm

Narrative: After a slightly delayed start we entered the airlock and started on Cow Dung Road with the rovers, with no issues. Curiosity’s battery reached 55% ~150m from the edge of the search area, as expected. We continued on foot and began with our "fanned-out" search procedure until reaching the center of the circle. We continued until nearing the Northern tip of the search area. Then Dave and Matt S. went clockwise around the search area, while Matt L. moved counter-clockwise. Some of this terrain was very hilly and made movement quite slow. At ~10:20AM we had still not located the NPS and asked for a hint from HABCOM, however due to the high amount of interference it was challenging to make out the exact hint. We continued searching until nearing the end of our EVA time, when we left to return to the Hab so EVA #13 could begin on-time. To expedite the return and maximize search time, we used the extended range of Opportunity to do a short shuttle mission. The NPS was not found, but we have now been given its exact coordinates and an EVA to recover it is planned tomorrow. There is also a slight chance it was claimed by some of the local aliens.

Destination: NPS Site #4A

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 517477N 4254656E

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

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

Mode of travel: Rovers Opportunity & Curiosity, and walking.

Crew 297 EVA 13 Report 23-04-2024    

EVA # 13

Author: Pawel Sawicki

Purpose of EVA: We plan on continuing tests of Case’s abilities with a local EVA. A ground station will be set up inside of the ScienceDome, with Case maneuvering in the surrounding outside area. While one crew member monitors (and if needed, controls) Case from the inside of the ScienceDome, another (Pawel) will follow Case around to locally monitor and help troubleshoot any problems. The operator of the ground station in the ScienceDome will not be involved in the EVA.
Within the vicinity (and LOS) of the Case operation, Sarah will take gamma-ray spectral data of the areas around the Hab/ScienceDome.

Start Time: 11:35 AM

End Time: 1:45 PM

Narrative: Today’s EVA was the final set of trial runs needed to get Case’s confidence up before exploring an area outside of the shadows of the MDRS Station. Sarah and Pawel quickly set up the ground station with Sean initially monitoring and controlling Case from the cool comfort of the ScienceDome. After setup, Sarah explored the area and took gamma-ray spectrometer measurements. She noted that the uranium content here was more than areas further south from the Hab (around Robert’s rocks), but inline with what is expected. Meanwhile, Sean was able to deliver a secret message to Pawel using a hexadecimal circle and Case’s precise IMU, ala The Martian. Case was also able to maneuver around an obstacle course to gather imagery of a point of interest, but needed some manual input from Sean in the process.

Destination: Around the MDRS ScienceDome

Coordinates: 12S 518203E 4250930N

EVA Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander) and Sarah Lamm (Crew Geologist)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: none, local EVA

Mode of travel: walking

Vehicles you will be using (If applicable): none

Crew 297 EVA 10 Report 21-4-2024
      
EVA # 10

Author: Pawel Sawicki

Purpose of EVA: The purpose of this EVA is to test Case’s abilities within the confinement of a local EVA. While one member monitors (and when needed, controls) Case from inside the RAM, another follows Case around to locally monitor and help troubleshoot any problems.

Start Time: 1:40 PM

End Time: 3:11 PM

Narrative: The crew of two opened up the back RAM airlock in their pressurized suits at 1:40 PM and quickly got started on getting Case’s equipment setup. A ground station was set up in the RAM with ancillary equipment (router and GPS station) just outside. In about 10 minutes of entering the Martian atmosphere, the robot was up and running around the area in front of the Hab. While Case’s paths to destinations were certainly mysterious at times, it was always able to reach the designated POI and avoid obstacles. Dave also took over manually to avoid obstacles, test Case’s range of operation, and perform the precise maneuver of bringing Case up the RAM’s ramps.

Destination: At the MDRS RAM and within close proximity.

Coordinates: 12S 518154E 4250918N

Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander) and David Laude (Crew Journalist)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: none

Mode of travel: walking

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.

Crew 297 EVA 11 Report 21-4-2024    

EVA # 11

Author: Sarah Lamm

Purpose of EVA: To observe the grey geological unit seen from orbit.

Start Time: 7:37 AM

End Time: 10:11 AM

Narrative: We arrived at the grey unit and took gamma-ray measurements of it, specifically to see if the uranium content would be higher than the previous units. From there we traveled to the overlook, and just south of the Sea of Shells. Once we came back to the intersection of Brahe Hey and Cow Dung Row, we hid the NPS device for Matt’s L project.

Destination: Area between Sea of Shells and Overlook

Coordinates: 12S 516033 4254592

Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander), Sarah Lamm (Geologist)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road, Brahe Hwy

Mode of travel: Opportunity

Crew 297 EVA 4 Report 17-4-2024

EVA #4

Author: Sarah Lamm

Purpose of EVA: To locate the NPS from yesterday and to observe a geological formation that from orbit is redder than the surrounding location

Start Time: 9:36 AM

End Time: 1:00 PM

Narrative: We arrived at the first stop to locate the NPS device for Matt L’s research project. It was found quickly. From there we moved to the south and stopped at the location yesterday to test how easy it would be to dig in the regolith and to get initial Gamma-Ray Spectrometer readings of the regolith. We continued south to the region that looked redder from orbit, to take more observations of the regolith and the rocks. Lastly, we headed north toward the Hab and stopped at Robert’s Rock Garden to observe those rocks in comparison to those we had already seen.

Destination: Find the NPS, location to dig and gamma ray on regolith, redder area regolith & rocks, Robert’s Rock Garden (Stop #4)

Coordinates: 12S 518166N, 425092E (Stop #1); 12S 518065 4250003 (Stop #2); 12S 518819 4248714 (Stop #3); 12S 518278 4249467 (Stop #4)

Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander), Dave Laude (Journalist), Sarah Lamm (Geologist)

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

Mode of travel: Spirit, Opportunity; Walking

Crew 297 EVA Report 18-04-2024

EVA #5

Author: Pawel Sawicki (Commander)

Purpose of EVA: This EVA will kick off the human-interaction study from CU Boulder (COHRINT Lab), where two crewmates will use the User Interface (UI) to monitor and interact with the robot as it traverses and records imagery of the relatively flat terrain. Thus it will also be the first time Case (the name of the robot) touches Martian regolith. The other half of the EVA crew will be in the vicinity (visual and audio site maintained) testing digging techniques that may be used to bury the [inert] NPS. Any dug-up holes will be filled in before the end of the EVA.

Start time: 9:50am

End time: 11:53am

Narrative: Today’s EVA was a first for the crew for many reasons. It was the first time we had four crewmates involved in the same EVA, the first time that Case got to test itself out on Martian regolith, and the first true attempt at digging the NPS. With four EVA members, Case (along with Case’s GSE), and a medley of digging tools, the exit via airlock took longer than nominal. Entrance into the Martian atmosphere required 5 minutes of depressurization so that two crewmates could leave along with the tools and the rover, 5 minutes of pressurization again, and finally 5 minutes of depressurization so that the remaining crewmates could exit. We finally arrived to our destination near Cow Dung Road approximately 26 minutes after first entering the airlock, determined to meet all our EVA objectives. Case was able to capture useful imagery of the surroundings, yet, it was not able to take off its metaphorical leash, needing to be monitored constantly and manually driven for a large portion of its adventure. The other two EVA crew mates had great success – digging a hole suitable for the NPS at a rate of 30 cubic feet per hour. Two hours had passed before the rover and related GSE were collected, the hole was filled up, and we started heading back home.

Destination: 920 m South (185°) of MDRS

Coordinates (use UTM WGS 84): 12S 518058N 4250031E

Participants: Pawel Sawicki (Commander), Matt Storch (XO), Matt Lynch (Crew Engineer), Dave Laude (Journalist)

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

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