EVA-49
Jon Clarke

This afternoon EVA was an EarthSkin scouting mission for uranium mines and prospects in the upper reaches

of Coal Mine Wash behind the outer ramparts of the North Caineville Reef. The vehicle used was the PEV

and the participants were Nancy Wood (biologist), Jonathan Clarke (geologist), and Stan Piechocinski (engineer providing data logger support). The abandoned uranium mine was not found but an abandoned

prospect consisting of an adit sunk into the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation. Checking the old spoil and ore dumps with a Geiger counter located some samples with above background radioactivity, (up to 0.3 millirads per hour). These were sampled by Nancy Wood for biological research.

Nancy also sampled water pools in Coal Mine and Neilson washes. Use of the data logger at the uranium prospect proved very successful. The EVA lasted three hours.

EVA-50
Shannon Rupert Robles

This afternoon EVA was a solo Earthskin sampling mission by Shannon Rupert Robles. I returned to the site of a sampling EVA done in 2002 by Crew 4 and collected additional samples for the microbial richness study.

The vehicle used was the chase vehicle. The purpose of the EVA was to compare the ability to collect samples in sim with traditional sampling methods used in ecological research on Earth. Last season, our crew went into sim immediately and so all work was accomplished in sim. What follows are my observations of Earthskin versus full sim analog suits.

I quickly discovered the shortcomings of being without a spacesuit-- protection from the elements being the most noticable. There is something to say for a helmet when the wind is really howling and it's very cold. I also missed the addition of a EVA companion-- a luxury I first discovered last season.

Most of my field work prior to my experience at MDRS had been solitary. I missed the companionship, and also the additional hands. The decreased dexterity that comes with wearing the EVA gloves had only minimal influence on these sampling protocols, but a doubling of the hands in the field made the work go much faster.

But the biggest surprise of the EVA was that I experienced almost no difference in mobilty without the spacesuit-- it seemed to me that sampling in sim and out of sim were remarkably similar in terms of energy and effort expended. I did not hike over long distances or rough terrain, but I still found it interesting that I felt I would have been more comfortable and could have accomplished more in a sim situation. Admittedly, this could all just be nostalgia, since it was my perception only, and I have yet to be in a spacesuit this season. But we go into sim tomorrow, so I will soon have the opportunity to reassess this first impression.