EVA Narrative
Jon Clarke

North Ridge

Yesterday Alex and I took the Phobos rover to the foot of North ridge.  This ridge dominates the northern skyline of the station.  I have admired this fill on all three previous visits, as well as every day since we have been here. But I have never climbed it – until now.  Time on the EVA was constrained by the limited batter power of Alex’s astronaut user interface-the SUIt.  So we could not afford to dawdle.  We found a promising looking climbing gully and then a connecting ridge and scrambled to the top.  Warm work, but the panorama was worth it.

The final ascent.

There was a magnificent view in all directions.  To the east there was a range of snow capped mountains to the south were the Henry Mountains, also mantled in snow.  Nortnwe could see the San Rafael Swell and west was Skyline Rim, Factory Butte and the snowy Aquarius Plateau beyond. In the middle ground were the red, brown, white, green and purple strata, beehive shaded hills, and sinuous ridges of the Pinto Hills.

View to the west, Factory Butte in the distance beyond Skyline Rim.

Geologically I had also wanted to determine whether the resistant capping of North Ridge was of the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone or whether it was if a sandstone or conglomerate lens within the Morrison Formation.  I was specifically hoping to find the distinctive fossils of the Dakota Sandstone, the oyster known as Gryphea. Failing that I was hoping to find the almost as distinctive trace fossils (mostly burrows) of the Formation.  Unfortunately I found neither, just cross-bedded conglomerates and sandstone.  There were a few non-descript burrows but these, combined with the bimodal current directions, indicating reversing flow directions, suggest a shallow marine environment, and thus the Dakota Formation.  This is contrast to the more or less uni-modal current directions of the river deposited Morrison Formation.  Also the conglomerate sandstone cap was at the same elevation as Hab ridge to the west, consistent with it being the Dakota Sandstone.  This is often the case in geology, there are no clear-cut answers, just sifting through and weighing multiple competing alternatives.

View to the north.

Low power in Alex’s SUIt forced us to return sooner than we would have liked, but it was a most successful and enjoyable EVA.

Here is a main meal where two side dish were combine to create a really great meal that I found most exciting and delicious.

Food Report for the 6th of December 2016.

Legendary Potatoes or Potato soup with couscous: (for adventurous potatoes hungry that are not afraid to step on a new continent to save the world of … )

Ingredients:
        For the Soup
3 Cup of «Augason farms» creamy potato soup mix. (or any other brand for 9 portions)
9 ¾ Cup of water (for the soup)
A handful of dehydrated spinach
Half of a handful of dehydrated celery
Half of a handful of dehydrated leak flake.
For the Couscous
A box «Near East» couscous mix, roasted garlic & olive oil flavors.
1 ¼ Cup of water. (for the couscous)
2 Tbsp of olive oil.

Note:  This portions were made for 7 but you could add more couscous to the mix. We didn’t had enough couscous in my opinion but we had plenty of soup.

Making the Soup
Step MtS – 1: Hydrate the hydrated vegetables with the right amount of water, remove excess of water.

Step MtS – 2 : Boil the water.

Step MtS – 3 : Put the soup mix in the water and stir.

Step MtS – 4 : As soon as the soup mix is well mixed in the water, add the vegetables. Let is cook for 20 to 25 minutes on low heat. Make sure you keep an eye on it, the soup mix will try to escape.

Making the Couscous
Step MtC – 1 : Heat in a pan, the water and the olive oil, until it boil.

Step MtC – 2 : Add the packets of spices inside the water and mix

Step MtC – 3 : Once the spices are well mixed, add the couscous stir, close the fire and let it rest. Once all the water as been absorb the couscous will be ready,

Making the Meal Legendary
Step MtML – 1 : In a bowl, put a share of the couscous.

Step MtML – 2 : Drown, or flood the couscous with the soup.

Step MtML – 3 : Serve it and let them discover the treat that is hidden in the soup and enjoy.

Potato Soup with more.

I discover this meal by accident. Not really by accident but by trying something different. One day we had soup and couscous for lunch, and I didn’t want to eat the little amount of couscous we had left by itself so I put my share in my soup and created this awesome meal. A lot of option and variation are possible so by using this basic recipe you can adapt it to make it your own, cooking should be an adventure filled with discovery, emotions and friends.

This meal is best serve with bread of your choice, French bread is a really good option.

As always please try this at home. Very little supervision is require, and to eat. Please enjoy.

Claude-Michel Laroche
Mars 160 – Crew Engineer

Sol Summary Report (SSR):

Sol#74

Person filling out report: Annalea Beattie

Summary Title: Laminated Gypsum Kinks on our EVA today.

Mission Status on track:

Sol Activity Summary:

We began the day as a crew caring for our plants. The green life on the rocks on my pot is increasing in spite of treatment but my tomatoes have seven small fruits which I will never see grow to fruition. Yusuke and Claude-Michel continued with the plant systems work, configuring and installing eight new rangers for the smartpots. Alex wrote all day.

Meanwhile, me, Jon, Anastaysia and Anu went out this morning on an EVA to sample gypsum, which was highly successful with three different kinds of gypsum sampled from the same period but from different formations. I drew laminated gypsum kinks which I have never seen before and did some pencil rubbings of early Jurassic worm trails on ripples preserved in sandstone.  It was great to be outside, very cold but lovely.

We came home, wrote reports and then downloaded, resized and named our photo images for Cap Com. All of us then did the three IMBP human factors tests, then wrote Polina’s diary, then the science field notes from today’s EVA.

It’s dark now and Claude-Michel is cooking dinner. We are on the countdown  with our food supplies but still had a lovely rice meal and Anastasiya’s chocolate pudding and Yusuke’s sweet red bean paste for dessert. Tonight, episode three of National Geographic’s Mars series (which does have a Nick Cave song and him singing as the opening musical theme).

Reports Submitted to CapCom:

1.   Sol Summary- Annalea
2.   EVA narrative – Jon
3.   Food report- Claude-Michel
4.   Pictures – Anastasiya
5. Photos of the Day – yes

Words of wisdom today from Jon :

Don’t judge people by the bushiness of their eyebrows.

Plans for tomorrow: Cleaning and writing.

Crew Physical Status: Good

Weather: Really cold

Anomalies: no