Sol Summary – July 26th

Written by Jon Clarke

Sol 7 (or 87)

The weather is NOT improving on Mars. Almost no wind, but it rained overnight and there are big puddles everywhere. The cloud is sinking lower and the far rim of the crater was actually hidden by them for much of the day. It’s not much higher here, but we think the lower cloud on the other side is coming in from the sea. It drizzled lightly all day, so our EVA team was once again forced to do their stuff out of Sim.

Anushree and Paul headed out across the crater floor along the creek beds to avoid to mud to the inner rim of brecciated rocks. Alex was shot gun. Anushree was sampling the local botany, focusing on lichens and yellow flowering plants for Paul Sokoloff at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Paul continued his trenching studies of polygons. While away from the quads the crew had their first encounter with the dreaded quick mud of the Arctic. Nobody lost their boots but it was touch and go for a while! On the positive side, no mosquitoes today. Perhaps it was too wet and miserable for them.

Thinking through our adventures I have decided that in Kim Stanley Robinson’s taxonomy of future martian politics I am “red”. Leave Mars as it is, turning Mars into a mud hole does not seem like a good idea up here on Devon!