Sol Summary – August 4th

Jon Clarke

Sol 16 (or 96)

We woke this morning to a great silence. Looking out the windows (after wiping all the condensation off them) I saw the reason: we were enveloped in thick fog. Visibility was down to less than 200m. It stayed like this most of the day, there were a few times it lifted but it soon came down again. The ground is also very wet, pools of water everywhere, saturated by the recent rain. The depth of soil above the permafrost is so thin that it does not take much to saturate it.

Today’s pictures show what we want to future to be, not our current situation. A crater filled with light, not fog. They were from a few days ago when for 30 minutes or so, we actually had sunshine.

So no EVA again today, which is frustrating. The ground was too wet for trenching, the visibility too poor for driving, and even for 3-D imaging, which is the simplest field task. So we spent the day working inside. Cleaning, rigging lights (or trying to), sorting old food and equipment, writing up notes, and planning for the day when we will be able to do a proper EVA.

The rest of the crew availed themselves of the shower this evening, so we are all clean and human looking again.