Field Report July 20, 2001 - Haughton Crater Report Number: HMP-2001-0720 By: Dr. Pascal Lee Today is July 20, 2001, the 25th anniversary of the Viking 1 landing on Mars and of course also the (32nd) anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonlanding. CNN carried a live webcast from the HMP Base Camp this morning featuring HMP Co-Investigator Dr. Peter Smith, planetary scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Peter was the PI of the camera system that was deployed on the greatly successful Mars Pathfinder spacecraft which landed on Mars in the Ares Vallis region in July, 1997, not far from Chryse Planitia where Viking 1 had touched down. (Photo NASA HMP / P. Lee 010720). The day was also marked by the beginning of our aeromagnetic survey. The geophysical data will be acquired by Fugro Airborne Surveys of Toronto Canada. The crew consisting of Mike Cain and Chris Kozak will oversee the acquisition and processing of the data. A Polar Continental Shelf Project-chartered helicopter arrived at Base Camp yesterday evening and was outfitted this morning with the "bird", a gigantic magnetic sensor slung underneath the helicopter. The bird is to be flown in a zigzag pattern over Haughton Crater and surrounding terrains in order to create a magnetic map of the site. The survey will help chart the "magnetic anomalies" (or contrasts) associated with Haughton that will help clarify the crater's deep-seated structure. Dr. Brian Glass of NASA Ames Research Center and I have been engaged in an effort to carry out this aeromagnetic survey at Haughton since 1999. The helicopter flights that will be take place over the next few days will allow our survey to be completed. This evening a Twin Otter flew in to pick up Miles O'Brien and Linda Saether of CNN, David de Volpi, the cameraman of Green Lion Productions/Discovery Canada who are making a documentary on the Canadian participation on the HMP, Katy Quinn, an Australian-born graduate student in geophysics and remote sensing from M.I.T. and a member of FMARS crew of Phase 2, and April Akeeagok, a high school student from Grise Fiord we had hired for two weeks. April is returning to Grise Fiord as part of a planned rotation of local resident students joining our project this summer. The field season is now in full swing. The poor weather days seem to be a distant memory. We are now off on all-day foot and ATV traverses, helicopter survey flights and robot rover runs. Mark Webb, the HMP's Education Program Manager and also our Camp Cook, gratified us this evening with succulent lamb chops, rice and garlic-laced spinach. To celebrate this special day, we asked Peter Smith to give the HMP's now traditional Viking 1 Landing Anniversary Lecture after dinner. Peter gave a wonderful talk on "25 years of Mars Science". We wrapped up the evening by laughing our heads off watching "The Best of Mr. Bean"...