Field Report, Wednesday, July 12, 2000.
HMP-2000 DAILY SUMMARY REPORT
Wednesday, 12 July, 2000
by Pascal Lee, HMP PI.
Weather
The weather today was again cold and windy, with temperatures in the low 30s (+1°C) and winds in the15-25 kts range, with occasional snow flurries and sleet. The weather forecast uplinked this evening from Doris Rotzoll and her teammates from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at NASA JSC in Houston indicates that this weather will persist for several more days. Their forecasts have been right on so far, so we are planning on limited field exploration activities in the days to come.
Science and Exploration Research
Pascal examined samples from a possible ancient impact-induced hydrothermal site encountered last Saturday on a traverse with Charlie, Patrick and Mark Webb. Pascal, Charlie, Oz and other collaborators on the HMP are conducting systematic studies of such sites at Haughton, as they are of importance not only for understanding the history of Haughton Crater but also for understanding where hydrothermal sites might be found on Mars and what signs of life might be preserved at those sites. Oz and Colleen continued their geologic surveys in the valley maze in the western part of the crater. They are examining in particular the effects of faulting and the grinding of rocks that occurred during the formation of Haughton Crater. AC, Darlene, Marianne and Patrick went for a hike near camp to look for moss samples and diatoms in streams. Darlene and Marianne will be embarking on more systematic surveys of diatoms in lakes as soon as the weather improves. Margarita plotted data from the Campbell Scientific weather station she recently installed at the Twin Otter landing strip and looked for trends over several days. Steve set up a network control station (a laptop in the lab tent) that now monitors all radio and satcom-based comms at our camp. Rick and Bruce spent part of the day planning for the deployment of repeater stations near Base Camp and upacking newly arrived equipment for their Mobile Exploration (MEX) technologies research. Tony ("DevonOps") and the HMP field science team conducted a "replanning meeting" this evening in which ongoing science activities were discussed and replanned in view of uplinked data and requests from the ExPOC at the Mission Control Center in Houston. Dr. Jeff and Terry ran further telemedicine experiments with Mark C and Patrick, and began preparing electronic dogtags to be worn by volunteers on the HMP core field team throughout the rest of the field season to test the durability of the tags. These dogtags are called Personal Information Carriers (PICs) and are being developed with the U.S. Army Medical Research Center. They contain vital medical information on the person wearing the tag, including the person's medical records and a digital photo.
Life on Devon
Marc B. ran his webcam, got our website videos streaming, and edited a video on hypothermia with Dr. Jeff. The Mars Society hab assembly team continued diassembling the aluminum platforms used in the paradrops. They were helped by Joannie, Joe and Sandy. A Polar Shelf (PCSP) Twin Otter brought Samson Ootoovak in late this afternoon. Samson, an Inuk student from Pond Inlet, studies Mechanical Engineering at St Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This will be his second field season on the HMP. Kurt, Chester and Wayne caught the Twin Otter flight out and will spend the next few days in Resolute exploring ways to proceed with the assembly of the Mars Society Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. John K and Dale remained at Haughton and will catch the next flight out to Resolute now expected for tomorrow. Andy and his Discovery Channel team have begun downlinking edited footage. Daren, the "Infosat Guy", left for Resolute as the Discovery Channel dish is at present up and running. Mark Webb cooked another great dinner: Soup was "Beef Stew Royal", followed by Spaghetti in Devon Island Sauce (a spicy Mars-red tomato sauce), concluded with warm Banana Cake and Apple sauce.
We are 27 people at camp tonight, including 22 HMP field team members: Rick Alena, Joe Amarualik, Marc Boucher, Steve Braham, Charlie Cockell Mark Connolly, Marianne Douglass, Bruce Gilbaugh, Tony Griffith, Terry Guess AC Hitch, Pascal Lee, Colleen Lenehan, Darlene Lim, Samson Ootoovak, Margarita Marinova, Gordon "Oz" Osinski, Joannie Pudluk, Sandy Salluviniq, John Schutt, Patrick Van Hove, Mark Webb.2 Mars Society hab assembly team members: Dale Cameron, John Kunz.
3 Discovery Channel TV crew members: Tom Eichler, Andy Liebman, Karin Mainville.
Thursday at 20:00 CDT join us for an online chat as Tony Griffith of NASA JSC talks about his Mission Control work.