Commander's Report # 16, 2006-04-17

We found water vapour and Methane
at a presumed old volcano!

2006-04-17, 1900h MST

AustroMars Mission Sol 10:  “Operation Edelweiss”
Four sols to go and the AustroMars team here at the MDRS and back in Salzburg at the Mission Control Center has embarked on a new course: Exploration.
All was started by a reconnaissance probe, which has found water vapour and Methane at a presumed old volcano. Because of the high altitude, aerobots ae not able to go there and due to the steep terrain there is also no chance that our rover can get there as well. So it’s up to us – the humans - to explore this spot and find out whether this methane is produced by geothermal activities or biochemical processes.

That’s the mission scenario, which we will follow for the last 4 days at the MDRS. The presumed volcano is Factory Butte, a rather high and very steep mesa like mountain in the northwest of the Habitat. Getting there is already an endeavour, getting up on it is practical impossible. And trying to do that all in four days is simply extremely crazy for anyone but us – we consider it daring.

It’s a fantastic goal that we aim for, we are aware of that. Nonetheless we think it is important, both for the AustroMars team as a whole but also for the analogue Mars exploration science, as we will try to push the limits of a what (analogue) Mars astronauts are supposedly be able to do. To do so we hat sit together, studied maps and engineering data and devised a strategy together with our MCC to get us there.

The strategy is centred on the utmost principles of the Mars Society and AustroMars: Safety – Science - Simulation. To make the endeavour as safe as possible we will conduct scouting missions to find the best way and we will try to make sure that we have communication for most of the way to be able to quickly react if necessary. Science will be done along the way, not as hitchhiker though, but as a prime passenger. And simulation will be kept as top principle as well. Spacesuits, ATVs, oxygen constraints, water bags, everything that is required for a long duration EVA – it will all be in.

And today we started the endeavour, nicknamed “Operation Edelweiss”, with both a scouting EVA and an engineering one. The first EVA was conducted by Alexander Soucek, the First Officer, and Christoph Kandler, the AustroMars Mission Specialist for planetary Sciences. While Christoph, our satellite navigation specialist was looking for the best route to Factory Butte, carefully navigating the EVA team over plains and trough canyons, Alexander was acting as EVA commander, making sure that everything remained within safe boundaries. Gernot Grömer, our Health and Safety Officer, orchestrated the whole mission as HabCom, however due to long range nature of the EVA there was not too much of communication ongoing. While scouting was one of the objectives of this EVA, geology was another one as well. Christoph and Alexander took several samples along the route, which led them along Lovell Highway and Brahe Road into the direction of Coal Mine Wash.

Starting in the afternoon, Christian Hutsteiner, our Flight Engineer, and I (Norbert Frischauf) were working on the communication part of Operation Edelweiss. We erected two WLAN router masts, one at the Repeater Hill – despite the strong, gail-like, wind and one 1.5 km from there to the West in the plain before Skyline Rim. Compared to the exercise that Christoph and I had undertaken last week at Phobos Peak, it was much more difficult today, mostly because of the strong wind, but at the end also because of the falling temperatures, which made our finger tips completely insensitive at the worst. And this does not do you any good when you are trying to entangle ropes, screw parts together and use your laptop to test the WLAN.

At the end we had made it: we had set up to WLAN masts and in the next few days we will erect a few more to cover the whole distance from the MDRS to the Butte. In parallel, other scouting missions will try to find better and shorter routes was well. Latest when we are at the base of Factory Butte – our simulated volcano – we will make use of the special talents of Markus Spiss, the AustroMars Mission Specialist for Life Sciences. His profession as mountaineer at the Tyrolean mountain rescue service will then definitely pay off, and we shall see how far we will get.

On to Mars is one of the buzzwords here at the MDRS. While we all belief in this quote from the bottom of our hearts there is also another quote, which characterises Operation Edelweiss and AustroMars to a great extent – “The Sky is the Limit!”

We will see in the coming sols how are we will be able to push this limit: for us as well as for the whole (analogue) human exploration sciences.

Stay tuned…

Signing off for today

Norbert Frischauf
Commander, MDRS Crew 48 "AustroMars"