EVA-1: Candor Chasma

The main goal of EVA-1 was to gain our first experience in performing field work in the astronaut suits and as a team, while Bill filmed our field interactions and conversations.

Prior to departure Abby and I went through training on driving the ATV's and in donning the EVA suits. For our first ATV expedition, Bill led us up to Skyline Rim on the ATV's where we could get a grand view of Factory Butte. Upon our return, we were given lessons on donning the suits, which we learned is quite an extensive task. After about 2 hours of ATV training and suit donning (compared to the years of training that real astronauts go through) we were ready to depart on the ATV's in full suits for our first official EVA. An 8-meter resolution aerial image of the HAB and surrounding area from Terraserver was used to navigate our way to Candor Chasma. Land navigation using aerial images is one planetary field experience Abby and I are simulating while at MDRS.

We were able to drive our ATV's an extensive way down the channel until we reached a bench in the valley floor where we had to dismount and continue on foot. The Chasma holds many wonderful geologic treasures of geology and was a great first location for a lesson in impromptu planetary field geology with a new field partner. Our interplay as a field team was very natural and comfortable, though we have no previous field experience together, which added to the realism of the simulation experience.

A few of our geologic observations and impromptu activities were trying to visually correlate beds on both sides of the canyon walls; tracking a cross-bedded, conglomerate layer through the canyon; and the discovery of giant calcite nodules, up to 1 m diameter in a dark brown, clay-mudstone layer towards the end of our EVA.

Most of all, I relished in the luxury of tracking through a narrow channel bounded by 20 m high, near vertical walls on either side, in an astronaut field suit. Following Abby in her field suit really made the simulation a visual reality. My main focus was on the nuances of doing field work in the suits and with voice recording and not uninhibited hands and a field book. The simple act of opening a sample bag (a classic blue and yellow make green kind) took both hands from two Ph.D. students, two rock hammers, and five minutes to open in the field. Lesson: Bring the zipper kind of bags or ones that are already opened.

Overall, I would rate this a successful venture and I am looking forward to comparing the video and voice transcripts of our first time out to future EVA's we will perform. With each EVA, I'm confident that our field interplay and detail in geologic observations and interpretations will strengthen in this unique planetary field environment.