EVA Report
December 27, 2012
Erick Tijerino
Diane, Derek, Nora and I were happy to wake up to favorable weather for our EVA this morning; this was the first ATV EVA for Derek and
myself, so to say we were “very excited” would be an understatement! Our primary destination was the canyon east of Teetering Rock; we were
interested in this location because water flowing through this canyon has cut into the rock revealing rock formations underneath the ground
surface. We hopped on our ATVs at 9:55AM and proceeded south on the BLM main road. The outside temperature was quite cold for driving ATVs
even at the low speeds we drove. Luckily we learned what to wear under our space suits from the previous ATV EVA that took place yesterday so
none of us was extremely cold. We reached the first crossroad (UTM 12s 520000E 4248000N) and turned back up north. This was a less transited
road so we had to be cautious about not leaving the road by mistake. As we drove north, we were impressed by the escarpment located on the
left of the road so we decided to make it our first stop (UTM 12s 520210E 4250490N). This is a location were the soil stratification can
be appreciated and suited for sample gathering. We collected many interesting samples to bring back for April, our geologist. To our
dislike we found refuse onsite, among the waste were antique beer cans and more contemporary soda cans embedded to sand rocks. The last ones
had small holes most likely from being shot with a BB gun, it’s such a shame that people come out to this beauty and disgrace it with their
trash. We collected as much as we could but the great amount of soda cans and the depth at which some of them were embedded into the rock
kept us from recollecting all of them.
While exploring the site we found a gradual ascent that we could take safely to the top. One we reached the summit we were flabbergasted by
the sheer beauty of the landscape. One of the rocks evoked the opening scene of The Lion King so I picked up a lion cub sized rock and
presented it to its kingdom (the background song of that scene just played in your head, just admit it). Nora took a good picture to
capture my silliness. From that vantage point Nora spotted our main destination, a canyon formed by thousands of years of water flowing
through it. After catching up our breath back from that view, we made out descent back to the ATVs and we were back on our way.
We finally reached our destination (UTM 12s 520000E 4251000N) were thousands of years of earth history are exposed like pages on a book.
Dina and Nora went on to explore the interior of the canyon and Derek and I climbed up a birm overlooking the canyon. The canyon rich with
geological history, Nora said that the site was filled with interesting rocks worth studying thus making it the objective of
tomorrow’s EVA which will include our geologist, April. Derek and I were able to spot our route back to the station from the top of the
hill. During my ascent I spotted a snake trail on the snow, something strange this time of year. The snake trail closed in to a mouse trail,
only one remained after they intersected. A remainder that this place is as lethal as it is beautiful.
After filling a couple of bags with rock samples, we started making out way back home. What kind of samples were in the bag? You might
ask… I’m going to leave our geologist explain it in her science report; I am just an Aerospace Engineer, for crying out loud! On the
route back to the habitat we spotted a peculiar rock formation in the shape of an anthill (UTM 12s 518922E 4251219N), and as you might have
already figured out, we decided to stop and give it a closer look. Nora and I discussed the probable formation mechanism of this sand
rock. Given my background in thermofluidics, I went ahead and attributed it to water erosion; Nora contributed by pointing out the most probable direction of the flow.
Our stomachs reminded us it was time to wrap it up and go home to a hot lunch. We closed the hatch at 1:50PM making the duration five
minutes under the four hour mark. Huge smiles filled our faces during the five minute airlock pressure equalization. April had cleaned and
categorized must of the samples collected on previous EVAs by the time we entered the habitat just to be loaded with more rocks to look at
from our latest outing. It was a good day today.