EVA Narrative: Canyon, Silence and Us

By Crew Biologist Anushree Srivastava

Yesterday morning, Jon, Annalea, Anastasiya and I headed for another adventurous EVA. This EVA was in semi-simulation because the site of interest was 75 km away from our habitat and generally accessible to the public. We started gearing up at 10 am. The EVA team entered into the airlock at 10:30 am and started five minutes depressurization. After depressurization was over, we were ready to move to implement our research objectives on field. Since we were supposed to travel 75 km, we took the PEV (Pressurised Exploration Vehicle) to reach the location.

This EVA was supposed to be conducted at an immensely beautiful and peaceful canyon. We headed for EVA with two research goals in mind: sample collection from ancient gypsum deposits and field drawing to provide a context for the sampling site.

Gypsum astrobiology is one of our prominent research targets as part of Mars 160 science mission. According to our Crew Geologist Dr Jon Clarke, this site consists of two different formations in the Early Jurassic (200-175 Mya):  the upper Carmel, lower Carmel, and Navajo Sandstone formations.  The Carmel and Navajo Formations belong to the San Rafael and Glen Canyon Groups, respectively.

The upper Carmel Formation is dominated by pinkish to white gypsum which occurs on metre-scale interbeds with green shales. The gypsum shows a range of textures, including lamination and chicken wire textures.  The chicken wire texture suggests that some of the gypsum may originally have been anhydrite.  The gypsum has been deformed, possibly during the formation of the San Rafael Swell.  Small kinds of folds are locally present and the alternation of shale and gypsum has been disrupted by strata-bound brecciation.

On the other hand, the lower Carmel Formation consists of inter-bedded fine sandstone and red mudstone.  The lower part of the sandstone succession shows through cross-bedding. The upper part shows wave ripples, sometimes with worm trails in the troughs. The transition from the lower to the upper part of the Carmel Formation appears gradational, with a transition from fluvial (cross-bedded sandstone) to shallow marine (worm trails in rippled sandstone) to evaporitic lagoon (bedded gypsum and shale).

Figure 1: Stratbound brecciation of interbedded gypsum and shale in Carel Formation. Image credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Figure 2: Laminated gypsum of the Carmel Formation. Image credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Figure 3: Chicken wire textured gypsum of Carmel Formation, possibly replacing anhydrite. Image credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Figure 4: Kink-folded gypsum of Carmel Formation

The Navajo Sandstone Formation comprises the main ridge of the San Rafael Swell.  This canyon is incised into it.  During yesterday’s EVA, our access to this formation was blocked by the flood and frozen sections of the slot canyons.  The Formation is characterized by fine to medium sandstone with very large scale cross-bedding. This cross bedding is generally recognized as indicating deposition by wind-blown sand dunes.

Hence, Jon and I were focused on sampling deposits of gypsum from each geological variation.  Anastasiya’s assisted us in sample collection and storage. So far, we have collected gypsum from three historical sites, but personally, the samples collected during yesterday’s excursion are my most favorite. I always prefer to chip off large and thick chunks of evaporite deposits in order to obtain crystals from the very core. This is to be done in the laboratory in a very specialized and sterilized condition. My sole objective behind studying these ancient gypsum crystals is to detect any buried sign of life inside them. Dr Jon Clarke’s help for this study is significant in order to obtain essential geological insights for each sample collected.

On the other hand, Annalea started drawing those laminated gypsum beds. I think field drawing of the sampling site is more efficient compared to the pictures, as the artist tries to carve every little detail in a more dynamic way. For me, field drawing gives the most precise context of the surroundings of the site of interest. Annalea’s drawing of the gypsum beds will be important for this study in the future. Annalea also drew the panorama view of the Kissing Camel Ridge. She also drew the wave ripples on the sandstone and fossilized sinuous worm trails in the troughs of wave ripples. Believe me, it was just amazing!

Last but not least, after finishing our objectives for the EVA, we moved forward to see the origin of the canyon cut through the Navajo sandstone. We were actually wonderstruck. The canyon was speaking the language of silence, perhaps telling us the ancient story of catastrophe. There is an inherent beauty in catastrophe.

Figure 5: Underside of the loose block of fine-grained sandstone from the lower part of the Carmel Formation showing sinuous worm trails in the troughs of wave ripples. Image Credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Figure 6: Wave ripples on sandstone. Image Credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Figure 7: The origin of the beautiful canyon. Image Credit: Dr Jon Clarke

Sol Summary Report (SSR):

Sol#75

Person filling out report: Annalea Beattie

Summary Title: Our final week here at MDRS.

Mission Status: on track

Sol Activity Summary: 

As we near the end of phase one of our mission the days here at MDRS continue to be busy. We all cared for plants. Jon wrote up field notes and discussed hypoliths with Anu and cooked lunch. Anu wrote an EVA narrative and did some lab work, plus a hypolith report.

Yusuke and Claude-Michel calibrated the plants brains.

In the afternoon Yusuke worked on the 3D graphics for the hab and Claude- Michel updated his log.

Anastasiya wrote a journalist report and Russian media articles.

Alex continues to work on his spacesuit interface project as he needs to test it again here in the field before the end of the mission. This afternoon he made a mold of Anastasiya’s camera part with liquid plastic and then taught her how to use a 3D Graphic Design computer program (CAD) to make a tripod part. (Everything is breaking!) Next they will try to print it out on the 3D printer.

I cooked and did some more writing.

Tonight for dinner we have a treat from the Kyokusyoku Extreme Food Company in the form of freeze-dried salmon and deep fried eggplant from Japan.

Thank you so much Kyokusyoku. Your timing is excellent!

Last night I had a dream about an apple.

Reports Submitted to CapCom: 

1.   Sol Summary- Annalea
2.   EVA narrative- Anu
3.   Pictures – Anastasiya
4. Photos of the Day – yes

Words of Wisdom from Claude-Michel:

Did I ever tell you what a definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the same exact thing over and over expecting things to change ( but sometimes it does! )

Plans for tomorrow: Outreach EVAs and Dome EVA.

Crew Physical Status: Good

Weather: Colder and colder

Anomalies: no

Food Report for the 7th of December 2016.

Gnocchi Revolution : (for anyone who can’t decide if they want pasta or potatoes. HAVE BOTH)

Ingredients:
1 fresh potato (170g) / person
150g of non white all purpose flour / 4 persons
1 egg / 4 persons
A dash of salt

Note:  Gnocchi is really easy to make at home, but is very sticky, prepare more flour than recommended here so you can put some on your work station later on.

Making the Dough
Step MtD – 1 : Boil enough water so you can submerge all you potatoes in.

Step MtD – 2: Peal all your potatoes, cut them into pieces, and boil them. Try to cut all pieces of potatoes around the same size so they will be all be ready around the same time, the larger they are the longer they will take to be cooked in the middle.

Step MtD – 3 :With a fork, make some small holes on the pieces of potatoes, and let them boil until they are all tender.

Step MtD – 4 : While the potatoes are still warm, turn the pieces of potatoes into mash potatoes. You can use you imagination on this step on how to do it, but I will recommend a potato-masher or a fork (the same you previously used to avoid doing more dish washing later on).
Any thing will work if you can mash them all out without leaving small bits of solid potatoes.

Step MtD – 5: Put the mash potatoes on your work station (hopefully it was clean before you read this) or in a mixing bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let the potatoes get close to room temperature. I suggest to use the work station for this step, it will give you more space for the following step to finish the dough, but the bowl will make less of a mess for now. No mater what you choose you will have to work on your work station eventually anyway.

Step MtD – 6 : Sprinkle the potatoes with the flour and add the egg(s). With your hand, delicately mix the floury potatoes to make a dough. Keep mixing the dough until it becomes flexible and smooth. Be careful here to not over mix the dough, it will make it elastic and we want to avoid this as much as possible (if you want to over mix a dough try the Udon noodle recipe). The dough could be very very sticky, if it is the case, add more flower.

Making the Gnocchi
Step MtG –  01 : Once the dough is ready, cut the dough in smaller pieces.

Step MtG – 02 : Take one of the pieces of dough, roll that piece of dough into a roll of 1 cm in diameter (half an inch for my American
friends)

Step MtG – 03 : With a knife cut the roll into a gnocchi with a length of 1 cm (still half an inch)

Step MtG – 04 : Sprinkle some flour all around the newly cut pieces.

Step MtG – 05 (optional) : If you feel fancy and adventurous you can roll the gnocchi on the teeth of a fork in a way that the gnocchi will have lines motif on it.

Step MtG – 06 (choices) : If you are to cook the gnocchi tonight skip this step and go to MtG – 8. To freeze the gnocchi, put the gnocchi on a plate and put them in the freezer. (fill the plate before you put it in the freezer)

Step MtG – 07 : Redo steps MtG – 2 to 6 until out of dough, or freezer space.

Step MtG – 08 : In a big casserole with boiling salted water, boil some gnocchi (not all of them at the same time) like a plate of them should be good. Once the gnocchi start to float count 2 minutes or until they are cooked.

Step MtG – 09 : Once the gnocchi are cooked, use a strainer to remove the water from the cooked gnocchi

Step MtG – 10 : Serve and enjoy with pesto sauce, or tomatoes and oregano sauce.
”
This meal was enjoyed by the whole crew on thanksgiving dinner. It was a side that could easily be main course. I wanted to do gnocchi for a long time and now it is done, and you could do the same.

This meal is best serve with tightly knit group of friends, as tightly as the gnocchi in the pan, that share common goal like slaying dragons, saving the world or just eating together.

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

Claude-Michel Laroche
Mars 160 – Crew Engineer