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MISSION CONTROL LOG July 8, 2001

From: Pascal Lee
To: FMARS Mission Support Team
Subject: Daily Mission Report 010708
Date: Monday, July 09, 2001 3:02 AM

Mission Support:

Here is our current status:

Six of us entered the hab yesterday evening (P. Lee, S. Burbank, C. Cockell, R. Effenhauser, D. Lim, F. Schubert). Steve was still in Resolute Bay.

Steve finally landed at Haughton today. The rest of the day was spent with:

  • Frank finishing/fixing plumbing in the hab and coordinating the major hab cleanup effort (almost complete now: we'll still need to dedicate tomorrow morning to that)
  • Steve setting up shop in the hab and unpacking all his gear. His comms won't come on line until Monday at the earliest.
  • Pascal hosting the surprise visit of a delegation of two head officials from the Nunavut Research Institute, the research licensing agency authorizing our research on Devon Island. The representatives arrived on the plane that flew Steve in.
  • Pascal and Rainer having to deal with a medical emergency and evacuation of one of the Inuit youths hired for the summer following an ATV accident this afternoon. Luckily nothing serious in the end but Rainer did leave for Resolute Bay by Twin Otter to take the boy to the clinic and flew back to Devon only late tonight, landing at camp at 3am on 010708.

In short, we are still catching up on the heavy delays imposed mainly by the unseasonably late departure of snow this year, by some aspects of the hab build out effort, by visits of officials, and by an accident.

Tonight, we are finally all in the hab: it's 3:45 am and Rainer just joined us. Spirits are high and we are eager to begin sim in earnest. We are planning to be in sim from now on, with some occasional necessary breaks, in particular to allow Steve to set up our overall comms infrastructure over the next few days.

Plan for tomorrow, Sunday July 8:

c. 8am local: wake-up / breakfast

9 - 11am: hab lower deck cleanup and water tank refill (with 5 gallon buckets hand-carried by support staff as the water pump is not online yet because of the risk of freezing.

11am - 12pm: suit prep

12 pm - 2 pm: hab local EVA (Frank Schubert and Sam Burbank) to outfit the outside of the hab with an escape ladder and connect a wastewater disposal system (drain pipe to a ground sump). Darlene will monitor the EVA from inside the hab. Meanwhile, Pascal, Charlie and Rainer will prepare for a late pm EVA.

4 pm - 6 pm local: Pascal, Charlie, Rainer and Darlene perform an EVA on foot. Darlene will retrieve a meteorology package set up on Haynes Ridge in 2000 400 m southwest of the hab. Depending on how well things go, Pascal and Charlie may then elect to go on a short ATV-rover traverse into Haughton Crater to search for shocked basement rocks and possible endolithic microbial communities living within them. Rainer and Darlene will reenter the hab and remain on standby for EVA in case Pascal and Charlie need help.

All crews will remain within walk back distance from the hab at all times. Oxygen reserves assumed to carried on each backpack is 3 hours, a relatively low value consistent with a spacesuit that needs to be kept relatively light in weight.

7:30 pm dinner
8:00 pm daily debrief
8:30 - 10:00: report writing

Best wishes to all.

Thanks for your patience.

We will be signing off with this message and will await you reply tomorrow at around the time you indicated.

Pascal and the FMARS-2001 Phase 1 Crew.

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Mars Society Flashline Arctic Research Station Mission Support