Quadrats for Hypoliths

Our goal on this EVA was to look at the abundance of hypoliths under quartz pebbles. Hypoliths are lithobionts that live under rocks. Anastasiya, Anushree and I walked east from the hab. We set up a quadrat, which is a one metre string frame that is laid over the ground as a square to act as a method of assessing local distribution. We found north with the geological compass and began to mark orientation on the surface of every quartz pebble with a black arrow. When all quartz pebble were marked within the square metre we then remove them and sort them into colonised and non-colonised groups to see the percentage of life living under rocks. We did this activity over four different locations. Then tourists arrived and parked their car near us and took a few photos out the car window, which we ignored of course and just stuck to our job, otherwise we would be breaking simulation.

Person filling out report: Anastasiya Stepanova

Summary Title: Friday special

Mission status: Operations are nominal

Sol activity Summary: In the morning crew had engineering EVA. Placed signs “Private property, no trespassing”, checked water, diesel and propane. The rest of the day crew spent on cleaning the habitat, doing one hour of yoga, documenting the hypoliths, writing reports and articles, drawing the 3D model of the habitat and working on the new design of the habitat. For the evening, we plan our traditional “Expanse” one of the series.

Anomalies in work: No

Weather: Cloudy and chilly

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: Engineering EVA

Only Martians Allowed