Sol Summary – July 28th

Written by Jon Clarke

Sol 9 (or 89)

Today illustrates the impact of weather on operations up here in the Arctic. Paul, Anushree and I planned doing a long EVA almost to the other side of Haughton crater, to the Haughton river. Objectives combined scouting and sampling. Just over 8 km as the snowy owl flies, and 26 km round trip as the quad bike drives, with the possibility of an additional 4 km extension, had time permitted. But as we were suiting up and doing the “depressurisation” cycle the fog had closed in so much we had to cancel. This is an important EVA because it allows us to access geology and environments deep inside the crater and to test long range operations. This was a very disappointing outcome, but safety first. We will try again tomorrow, weather permitting.

For dinner this evening Yusuke prepared a traditional Japanese sea food meal called Furi Kake. It was… interesting! Flakes of salted dried fish, shrimp, squid, sea urchin, plums, and seaweed sprinkled on rice and eaten with wasabi. There was also a dried sweet bean “dessert” one.

For the record, Paul’s choice of birthday movie was “Twister”, an appropriate choice for someone who is a storm chaser back home!