A preserved expedition record. Dates, ages, roles and descriptions reflect the original account; references to live activities describe that period.
Date Time: 20:00 02/05/2013
Written By: David Willson, Crew Commander of MDRS123
Today was much warmer than previous days with above 32 °F reaching 50 °F with blue skies. The ground was not frozen in the early morning as per yesterday.
Mountain Dacite showing inclusions
At 10.30 am in the morning David and Jen undertook a 4 hour out of sim EVA to the west of the Hab collecting samples of shale, sandstone, and mollusks.
Fossil moluscs
Then they proceeded south to the Henry Mountains collecting samples of plutonic igneous rock and Blue Gate sandstone.
Later they collected sandstone samples around the Hab. The MSL/MDRS rock sample kit is now only missing an example of pebbly sandstone. Locations visited included:
UTM 12S 519988mE 4247637mN
UTM 12S 511436mE 4246027mN
UTM 12S 522315mE 4226506mN
UTM 12S 525497mE 4239744mN
UTM 12S 518589mE 4250727mN
In the morning, Emma and Melanie prepared for the first dust experiment and planetary protection risk analysis.
Dust experiment, removal of dust suits
In the afternoon, the crew donned white dust overalls and undertook an EVA at 4.30 pm to location N38.40768 W110.79197. They photographed the model Curiosity rover, simulating low to ground close photography on Mars, and drilled into a mudstone rock, an analog to the rock currently being drilled by Curiosity in Gale Crater.
Curiosity photographed again
Drilling into mudstone, an MSL analog
The crew is pooped and now about to eat Hab made pizza.
ENDS.