MDRS Day 7 - Ghost of the Navigator

The BBC film crew arrived today to film us doing what we always do. Because of it, we didn’t get a lot done in terms of science, but the one EVA that I planned on going on was successful, and it’s been an easy day otherwise, so I really can’t complain.

I woke up hot and sweaty because the crew thought because it would freeze overnight, they needed to turn up the heat. If you have a regulator that regulates heat, it does not need to be turned higher to fight the cold; that’s why it’s called a regulator. The camera crew came inside after getting some exterior shots of the place, and our day really started.

The crew consisted of two women who we had met the day before and two men that seemed to do all the work (cameraman and microphone holder). On a side note, the younger woman was trying to flirt with me, so much that LaTasha noticed, which put me in a weird spot because I have to stay professional, not because I was working but because of whom I was representing. It’s a funny place to be in.

LaTasha and I were scheduled to go on an EVA to find an entrance to the bottom of the Candor Chasm, a place that Jen had gone to on Crew 1, but since we did not have any GPS data from the location of the entrance, we had to find it. Jen said that the place was the biggest geological structure around, but I doubted it could have been bigger than the place J.R. and I found the day before.

The camera crew interviewed Jen while LaTasha and I suited up in the background. Even though I’ve been around camera crews and Radio-Television majors, it always makes me laugh on the inside when I have to do something over again, like put on the suit, so the camera guy can get another shot.

Once the suit donning shenanigans were over, LaTasha and I spent our five minutes in the airlock. During that time, the camera guy walked in as well, and we had to repeat all our commands at least three times for three different shots. We also had to walk out of the airlock twice, once while he was in our faces and once while he was on top of the hill in front of the Hab.

The cool part was that he wanted to get shots of LaTasha and I driving ATVs over the side of the road rather than on the road. I got to do some maneuvering that was a lot more fun than going in a straight line. It’s amazing how similar ATVs are to waverunners, minus the whole spinning out on the water thing, and of course the entire water thing.

Once he got the shots, we headed off. I was navigating and only had a foggy idea of where we needed to go. The marked trail on the map was just south of a prominent landmark, so we headed there. However, because of the 100 year flood that occurred in October, that trail was nowhere to be found. With no map and a dying GPS, I went offroading over bumpy terrain in search of where the contour lines merged. I hoped I was heading northeast at this point.

Something about navigating through the unknown territory made me feel great. I’m sure LaTasha didn’t like it, but I just kept going. The ride sure was rough, and the chances of me going in the right direction were small since there was no trail and I thought I was heading east instead of northeast.

I don’t know how long we went, but it didn’t take too long to see a place where we could see no further. I took the high ground to get a better view, and finally we arrived at the chasm. Not only did I go the right direction, we landed smack on the tip of the chasm, exactly where we wanted to go. GPS is for suckers. From what I can gather from the map, it’s a tributary of the Muddy Creek, the same tiny, tiny stream that carved out the canyon I saw with J.R. yesterday. However, I was right; the previous canyon was far bigger, but the important goal had been found. On the east side there was a gentle slope down into the chasm. It was too small for an ATV to get by on, but nonetheless a person could walk down towards a cliff wall and gather a sample of perfectly layered earth for analysis.

Along another area there was a relatively steep slope that an ATV could possibly get down. I would have tried it had LaTasha not been with me, but we decided to just mark the two points and get out of there. On the way back we found an easier route through a dry riverbed that fed the chasm, but it was covered in mountain lion footprints that looked pretty fresh. We decided to high-tail it out of there. Once on the main road, I let LaTasha lead while I tore up the plains on both sides of the road. I’m glad she couldn’t see me going all over the place, because I might have gotten in trouble.

The power went out minutes after we got back. We could not have timed the return of the CE any more perfectly so he could swoop in and restore power for the camera crew. (Also, I’m the Chief Engineer, not the Crew Engineer. My mistake). We had lunch with the camera crew and prepared for another EVA. Jen and Robbie would ride with the crew while LaTasha and I would drive by on the ATVs. We did several shots that should turn out beautiful but seemed so staged I wonder how it will look in the end. The whole process made me seriously reconsider every documentary involving people ever.

Crew: Get a sample of those rocks.
Jen: Sure!
Ben: (quietly to Robbie) Since when do we get random samples of stuff we already know the composition of? It’s dirt.
Robbie: (helmet up, out of sim) Bahh, whatever.

By the time they were done with the shots, I was freezing from not moving around enough and had a full bladder from doing nothing but drink water while sitting down. Once we signed our lives away, we went about the rest of the night as planned; dinner of Jambalaya, report writing, and enough of a break to watch Red Planet starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. Spare yourself the two hours; 2001 was a bad year for Mars movies.

Tomorrow I’ll be writing an ATV training manual and building some walls. No planned EVAs, but then again both of today’s EVAs weren’t planned until the day of, so we shall see.

"Take my heart and set it free, carried forward by the waves
Nowhere left to run, navigator's son,
Chasing rainbows all my days

Where I go I do not know, I only know the place I've been
Dreams they come and go, ever shall be so,
Nothing's real until you feel"