FMARS Sponsors	Dispatch from FMARS Robert Zubrin - Tuesday, July 16, 2002 EVA-5 Report | Biology Report 4 | Photo Gallery Robert Zubrin operating out of sim to provide armed lookout for EVA team. We had a productive, trouble free day today. Markus and Shannon conducted an EVA to Marine Rock, with me providing armed escort out-of-sim. They successfully collected one of the two sets of pristine samples for the Carnegie Institute MASSE life detection instrument program. The process was documented meticulously, both by the in-sim EVA team with a digital camera and me with a digital camcorder. I also took a lot of action footage that we can make available to broadcast media who want to do a story on our Arctic Station. The camera is pretty good, but I'm strictly an amateur with video equipment. So if we end up making a movie of our own with the footage we produce here, we should call it "The Blair Mars Project." On our way back to the Flashline Station, the team did a little scouting and discovered a large interesting outcrop near the Lowell Canal. Markus named the formation Hellas Rock. It's a kick being able to name things, but it is necessary too. Without a name, a geographical feature just sinks into the background. In order to be able to grasp the concept of a thing, talk about it, and hold it in memory, it has to have a name. The first explorers on Mars are going to have a lot of naming to do, but it's a joyous task. While the EVA team was climbing around exploring Hellas Rock, a Twin Otter aircraft heading towards the NASA base camp flew low overhead, perhaps fifty feet above the crew. It was quite sensational and I managed to get a photograph of it. Most of the crew stayed back at the hab, as our EVA's to date have now produced a mass of data that needs to be analyzed. Frank worked on applying our ground truth data to develop a precise geometric grid for the Landsat images. He is working towards producing a geometrically rectified satellite image map with coordinates that can be used by all future missions. He also worked on writing a geology report on yesterday's activity that we sent to Mission Support tonight. Nell worked on creating an Excel spreadsheet data base for all of our waypoints. She also created a system of folders for organizing all of our reports and photographs. We expect to be able to send Mission Support a Mark 1 version of the waypoint spreadsheet in about 3 days. This will then be replaced by more complete versions as this and subsequent missions proceed. The goal is to produce a catalog of geographically defined points with corresponding scientific and operational information for each. This will be an invaluable reference for all future activities on the island. K. Mark cut off the top of our used diesel fuel drum and converted it into a burn barrel for our trash, which had begun to seriously encroach upon our living and working space. We are now trash free, and loving it. He also wall mounted out local net hub and strung the wires under the com counter so the wire mess is now gone. He then used the burn barrel to get rid of our accumulated trash. Emily worked on her journal, and helped K. Mark with the trash burning. Nell and I repaired the two spacesuits damaged yesterday, so we now have 6 functional suits again. The ATVs operated today without stalling. The incinolet stopped working for a while, but we identified the problem as clutter stopping the mechanism from closing completely, which is necessary for it to switch on. When it was cleaned it restarted. The weather today was sunny with mostly clear skies. We spent the early evening hoping for sky to remain clear in front of the sun at 9 P.M, because at that time, the Terra satellite would pass overhead. The unlikely coincidence of a clear sky and a satellite overpass is needed to get a good measurement with JPL sun photometer, but our luck held out and we got our chance. So at 8:40 PM Emily suited up and went outside to produce, in sim, the farthest north ground truth measurement ever taken for the Terra satellite MISR instrument. This data will be sent to Mark Helmlinger at the Jet Propulsion Lab and used to correct for atmospheric opacity distortion of the surface spectra of this region taken by the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite. The result will be an improved orbital survey of huge regions of the high Arctic. Our plan for tomorrow is a two person EVA by me and Frank to get more ground truth points for his map and to verify or refute his dark pixel theory by sampling more surface points with coverings of large rocks and boulders. Nell will work on the waypoint database, Shannon will work in the lab, and Emily will try to get another sun photometer measurement during a Terra overpass at around 1 P.M. Everyone is healthy and morale is high. We have plenty of food and fuel, and all essential systems are operational. Things are going great.
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