MDRS Day 6 - The Prisoner

Today was an odd day. Bad things happened to the crew, but I had a pretty good day. It makes me feel a little weird; having a good day while everyone else has a bad one brings me down. Maybe it’s just my good utilitarian nature.

We awoke early only to wait for the BBC crew that came to scout out what they wanted to shoot for tomorrow. They got lost on the way in, but at least they saw how Martian this place looks. The two British ladies were given an overview of what we’re doing here, and then J.R. and I suited up for our geology scouting EVA while they watched us don the suits. They also followed us out for a little while to see how they could get video of us speeding by them on the ATVs.

They left us and we started heading far north and a little east. We tried to get to some really tall cliffs off in the distance, but the terrain was just too rough and we couldn’t get very far towards the west where the cliffs were. We kept going until the road ended where we ran across the biggest canyon I have ever seen. This place was AMAZING. What’s even more amazing is the fact that such a tiny flow of water carved it out of the terrain. When we got back, I looked at the map to see what river it was. It wasn’t even a river; it was labeled “Muddy Creek.” For such a huge canyon, I’d give it a little more credit if I was naming things.

We got many pictures of the geology (which will be uploaded to the All Photos page, the link is on the right) and I went to some places where J.R. could show the scale of the place. I look like a little white dot next to these drops. Our goals were to find layering in the rocks and evidence for erosion. The canyon definitely had layering, so half of our mission was complete. We explored the top of the canyon a little more and then headed out to find a way down into the creek.

However, despite going far along the canyon, we could not find a place to safely enter the area on ATVs or even get too much further down without hitting mounds of rocks and very dangerous terrain. We decided to just look around for cool stuff. We found a weird looking hill, and at the top of that we spotted some cows that we felt like tipping. We drove near them, but they were tagged, so we drove off.

On the way back we stopped at the ice lake that Robbie and I discovered two days before so J.R. could get a look at it. We also found our evidence for erosion on the other side of one of the dikes of the lake (it looks somewhat manmade) and marked it on GPS.

The whole time we were riding across the terrain I felt pretty good. It was very refreshing going off on an extended EVA and seeing the landscape change so drastically. We started out on Mars, went through a plain, ended up at a huge canyon, saw some cows, and rode across desert. I just forgot about everything, the hunger and bladder pains, the time, and all the cares in the world while we were out there.

Unfortunately, J.R.’s helmet was fogging up pretty badly, so he took it off so he could see better (our priorities at MDRS are 1) safety, 2) simulation, 3) research, 4) public relations, and 5) comfort. This was jeopardizing #1) and strapped it to the back of his ATV. It bounced off and the back shattered into pieces. We’re still awaiting word from Mission Support on whether or not we should try to fix it.

Once we got back, there wasn’t much for me to do. I started working on the shed that Paul wanted me to start building in the engineering area, and I built a cover for one of the tanks in the GreenHab to block sunlight so algae doesn’t grow there. I also adjusted a hose so it doesn’t suck water out of our water supply and back into the underground tank it comes from. Nothing broke down today. Nothing went wrong. It felt way too easy.

Robbie cooked pizza and cake for dinner, and then we all finished our reports early to send off to Mission Support so we could relax on a Friday evening. We were going to watch a movie, but since no one could decide on what to watch, we all played poker with the meager pack of chips that was left by someone before us. Now everyone is asleep and it’s time for me to join them in a good night’s rest.

"I'm not a number, I'm a free man
Live my life where I want to
You'd better scratch me from your black book
Cause' I'll run rings around you"