Sol Summary – November 4th

Sol #36

Summary Title: The morning to talk and think and the afternoon to meet and greet.

Summary of Activity:

This morning early, we all met to debrief from the last two days of field operations. We’ve just completed two rigorous trials in the field with a focus on how we perform in our work with and without space suits. This is our day to recover and have time to determine the quantity and quality of science return from the last two EVA’S, building upon what we have learnt. We sat around the table this morning and compared notes, discussing how we can apply that knowledge over the next two days of EVA’s.

We are fortunate to have so many international crews working in our area this month. This afternoon we were invited to take one of our space suits over to the UK Space Agency camp. It’s remarkable for our crew to have the opportunity to mix with anyone at all and it’s even more amazing to meet this great rover team from all over the United Kingdom and see their analogue field work. In some ways it has quite similar goals to the science operations project work we do here. Like our trials over the last few days, the aim of their work is to put together a field trial that focuses on mission operations.

I interviewed Mike Curtis-Rouse and several of his team for my space.com blog and Anastasiya videoed some of the crew for her Russian media blog. Some of the team had never been in the field, never been in the desert and never been in a sleeping bag!

On the way home we dropped into the German camp and filmed their autonomous Spider Rover in action. Spag Bol for tea cooked by Jon Clarke. Early night in preparation for our EVA tomorrow.

Mission Status: Operations are on track. Currently we are in the process of planning science for the fortnight in line with the science goals regarding lichens, hypoliths and halophiles.

Crew status: All healthy and well, yoga this afternoon, fingers crossed.

HSO: Nothing to report.

Engineering Maintenance: Claude-Michel is monitoring the smartpot project as well as his usual jobs checking water, suits and back packs, etc. What would we do without him? He keeps everything ticking over.

EVA: Out of SIM Alex, Anastasiya, Jon and I visited the U.K.. Space Agency camp while Claude-Michel and Anu stayed home and wrote their reports and logs.

Plans for tomorrow: EVA, which is the third day of our science operation trials. Tomorrow we will all be in the field working out of simulation.

Miscellaneous: nada.

Weather: cool, quiet, grey skies, almost time for thermals.