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Archive: 16 Oct 2016


Sol Summary – October 16th

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

Person filling out report: Anastasiya Stepanova

Summary Title: The Sunday

Mission status: Operations are nominal. Day off

Sol activity Summary: Just like on Earth, on Mars we are also having a Sunday, which means a day off for the crew. We still work, but not in the precise schedule. The lower deck cleaned, rearranged for use that is more convenient and for yoga lessons. The crew participated in human factors test “Group discussion” by Institute of biomedical problems. The rest of the day crew continued to work on their projects and reading the books.

Anomalies in work: No

Weather: Sunny and stormy wind, very warm

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: No


Recipe for Spacey Antarctic Stir-Fried Seafood

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

Food Report for October 16, 2016.

Spacey Antarctic Stir-Fried Seafood: (for 7 Space cadets or they Antarctic equivalent)

spacey-antarctic-stir-fried-seafood

Ingredients:
1 packet of Stir-fried seafood in chili sauce (from Kyoku syoku) / person
1 packet of flavored deep-fried eggplant (from Kyoku syoku) / person
2 Cup + 190 ml of water / person
1 Cup of Rice / person

Note: Other recipe like this will come so please stay tune.

Step 1: Add 1 cup of rice with 2 cup of water in pressure cooker.

Step 2: Boil the 190 ml of water left.

Step 3: Open both packets and get the inside bowl next to the plater.

Step 4: Serve the rice once it is ready

Step 5: Verse 120 ml of water in the stir-fried seafood in chili sauce container. Wait 2 minutes.

Step 6: Verse 70ml of water in the Flavored deep-fried Eggplant. Wait 1 minute.

Step 7: Enjoy.


Science Post – October 16th

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

Life in Adversity: Hypolith Superhero!

By Anushree Srivastava and Dr Jonathan Clarke

Hypoliths are communities of photosynthetic organisms that survive and thrive underneath translucent surface rocks such as quartz. One of the objectives of the MARS 160 science mission is to explore hypoliths in the Utah Desert. Hypoliths may have significant relevance for astrobiology and have been explored in Earth’s deserts such as Atacama, Namib etc. Hypoliths may be able to survive aridity using vital moisture stored in the depressions beneath the rocks. Researchers have explored polar hypolith communities dominated by cyanobacteria and conclude that they find shelter from high fluxes of ultra-violet radiation and wind scouring in these high altitude cold deserts.  One of the objectives of yesterday’s EVA was to scout a small canyon between Tank Wash and the Junction of the 1572/1575. Alexander, Annalea and I had another amazing EVA on the All-Terrain Vehicle – I mean ATV 🙂

hypoliths-image-credit-anastasyia-stepanova

Figure: Hypoliths


Science Narrative – October 16th

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

A LANDSCAPE TURNING ITSELF UPSIDE DOWN

Jonathan Clarke

figure-1

Cartoon showing channel formation, exhumation, and inversion

I have previously described the process of relief inversion and channel exhumation that dominates the landscape surrounding MDRS.  In this post I will illustrate the process further.  Figure 1 shows how the process works in cartoon form.  First we have a river depositing sand in a channel and clays on the floodplain.  This was the landscape of this part of Utah in the Jurassic.  There were many such channels draining to the north east.  Second we have the channel sands completely buried by the clays, the channel sands are then lithified (turned to rock), forming sandstone, and the floodplain clays , which lithify to shales.  The sediments are uplifted and then eroded.  Third, as erosion excavates down through the sedimentary sucession, the channel is exposed.  Because the sandstone is more resistant to erosion than the shales it starts to form a ridge. Fourth, erosion has continued to such a degree that the channel now forms of shale ridge capped by sandstone.

figure-2

Cartoon cross section through a ghost exhumed channel

Erosion continues, eventually the sandstone cap becomes so reduced in size that it topples down the side of the shale beneath.  This we could call a ghost exhumed channel.  The channel has gone, but the imprint of it remains. With the protective cap gone the shale ridge will rapidly (geologically speaking) disappear. Exhumed and ghost exhumed channels are often broken up into segments as streams erode through them.  This is shown in the following profiles.

figure-3

Cartoon profiles along segmented exhumed and ghost exhumed channels

We can see all stages of this process, one by which the landscape is continuously turning itself upside down compared to the original depositional surface.   This is because there are many channels at different levels throughout the Jurassic sediments at MDRS.  Figure 4 shows a channel that is just starting to be exhumed. Low sandstone outcrops stand just above the surrounding surface of mostly shale.

figure-4

The next two photos show “Kissing Camel Ridge”, a local landmark.  This is the most prominent exhumed and inverted channel at MDRS.  It is formed by a large, sinuous channel of very coarse sandstone to conglomerate.  The conglomerate at the western end (Figure 5) is still present forming the resistant cap.  Further east the channel has become segmented and the cap more eroded, transitioning from an exhumed inverted channel to a ghost inverted channel (Figure 6).

figure-5

figure-6

The final stage of the process is the more or less isolated beehive-shaped shale that dot the landscape (Figure 7), and so puzzled me the first time I visited MDRS.  It has taken me four visits to work out these details!

figure-7

The landscape of Mars contains many details that are still poorly understood.  Iinvestigation of which will shed many insights into past and present martian processes, hold clues to habitability, and point to potential resources.  Examples include the “spiders” of the southern polar regions, the gullies found in many craters, and the “recurring slope lineae” which may be formed by seeping water, but then again, may not.   Successful though they have been, robotic rover missions can only scout the surface.  As an example the entire traverse of the Spirit rover mission at Gusev Crater, or the distance covered by the Curiosity rover mission to date, could be contained in the immediate area north and south of MDRS.  We can cover the distances that took these missions many laborious years to cross in an hour’s driving on our quad bikes, as well as access areas – such as the tops of ridges – that a robotic rover mission cannot.


Picture of the Day – October 16th

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

Geology Scouting

Geology Scouting


Crew Photos – October 16th

October 16, 2016 | Permalink

Alexandre Mangeot

Alexandre Mangeot

 

Anastasiya dreaming of Mars

Anastasiya dreaming of Mars

 

Driving ATV

Driving ATV

 

Food Inventory

Food Inventory

 

Funny Time

Funny Time

 

Gypsum

Gypsum

 

High Cuisine

High Cuisine

 

On Space ATV

On Space ATV

 

Workspace

Workspace