Journalist’s Report
Date:Dec 12 2012
Written by: Dan Wilcox
As we’re over 35 million miles from Earth, we can’t just pop over to
Walmart for supplies. If we don’t have something, we try to make due with
what’s available. Now for some, this is an problem but for others like me,
it’s a creative limitation. Sometimes it’s fun to see what you can cobble
together with the materials at hand.
For instance, I’ve been collecting Martian soil pigments and carrying
little plastic sample containers with me. First I had a baggies tied to my
belt, but these are a pain to use with the suit gloves on. You have to
reach in and fish around until you find an empty bottle which takes an
inordinate amount of time as the bag swings back and forth. Annoying.
Plus, one of them developed a hole and I left a Hans & Gretl trail of
plastic bottles. Also annoying.
The other day, I came across an empty coolant jug leftover from power
plant maintenance. It was the perfect size, so I cut the spout off and
added an access hole in the side. A few zipties here and there made 2
compartments, turning it into a custom sample case. The bottom contains
empty bottles which you fill with something and then drop them into the
top through the hole where the spout was. Simple, easy to manipulate with
gloves, and has a built in carrying handle. You’d think somebody on Earth
would have thought of this first ... but maybe it requires that little bit
of necessity.
The pioneer spirit.
As the first humans on Mars, we are pioneers looking for the new, the
unexplored, and the unexplained. Everything here is new and we have the
luxury of being able to walk over the next hill to undiscovered territory.
With everything more or less explored on Earth, this is the new frontier
and it’s dangerous and exciting.
As for exciting, Commander Reynold’s, Lisa, and Habib discovered evidence
of more advanced ancient life and what appears to be petrified wood during
this morning’s EVA. At this point, we can’t give out any further info as
this find needs to be double checked back on Earth and by
Astro-paleologists coming in the future. In any case, we here on Mars
think this is big news and points to a definitive second genesis.
Naturally, Mission Support will want to triple & quadruple check before
saying anything conclusive. Unlike them, we see things pretty simply here,
for better or worse.
On the afternoon EVA, Paula and I returned to double check the coordinates
of this morning’s discovery and then trekked out onto the plains above the
Hab. We drove on through variable terrain towards the dark rim about 3 km
to the West and the area is full of grays and blacks, much different from
the red, banded bentonite around our home. I collected two pigment samples
of nice dark grey and black powered clay.
Along the crumbly, powdered clay plains below the rim, we noticed
thousands of tiny points of light within the clay: light reflecting off of
what appears to me to be gypsum. I collected a sample and, if verified by
the Remote Science Team, this can be another useful resource. From what
I’ve read, gypsum can be used for fertilizer, to make plaster, as building
material (sheetrock), and is a component of Portland cement. So our little
foray might have already found useful materials to build a more permanent
base. I’m proud.
I’m not proud however about what happened next: we got a bit lost.
We were following a track identified on the satellite maps but just didn’t
seem to be in the right place on the ground. The simple answer was that it
wasn’t in the right place and *we* weren’t in the right place. I had
navigated us about 1 km off course to the south. Just when we thought we
were good on time, we had to painfully backtrack. Luckily, I was able to
rectify my faulty navigation by correctly locating out position and
getting us back out the way we came.
Now this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it was getting close to dark
and the surface temperature difference between a Martian night and day are
extreme: −100 to 0 degrees Celsius! After spending 2-3 hours outside
in the sun at 0 degrees, the cold seeps into your bones and you’re looking
forward to a warm Hab. Now imagine that at −100. Our suits aren’t
designed to stand that temperature otherwise they would be far too
cumbersome to use effectively. So when the sun started to dip towards the
horizon, Paula and I were worried. In the end, we slipped in at least an
hour before sundown, so all that ends well.
This little experience reminds me that every time we send an EVA team off
and wish them luck that they’ll return again, our morale is high but we’re
all mindful of what’s at stake. It may be dangerous, it may be scary, but
it’s worth every step onto our new world. We return to Earth in 3 days
time. Will you come step in our footprints after we’re gone?
Mars needs colonists.