Haughton Crater Images

Here are some images from yesterday's ATV Traverse:

Me and Ben

Sapphire Lake

After Dinner Talk

I spoke this evening regarding Jovian Satellites. Io, Europa, Ganymede and Titan were my principal subjects, and it went well. I find those moons immensely fascinating considering the prospect for research. The talk timed at about thirty minutes when I should have taken only fifteen to twenty but hey, it was worth it.

Before the talk

Io on Display

Ganymede on Display

Cold, Cold Day

Toward a Northeastern Direction

Tent City with ominous clouds

Due to the crappy weather, I've gotten too much computer related work done, but now that it's finished, I can rest. Later tonight, I'm going to speak on the Galilean Moons and Saturn's Moon: Titan. I'll probably post about the moons here too after I've done the talk. Today still wasn't 0 Celsius, just around 2 C, but the winds are upwards of 25-30 km per hr, it's brutal.

Sunset... Almost

                       
                        Here's the Sun at about 2:46 AM Today, with a Northward Orientation... Amazing

Another Traverse

Entrance to Valley of the Planet of the Apes

I think I'm biased on my blog. I tend to blog about the absolutely and unending fun things like ATV traverses. The work is important but I think the exploration that comes with the ATV traverses is tremendously spirit-lifting. I love what I do on Devon Island but ATV traverses really top the list, but top the list in a different way. Coming here with a mindset to work is the proper way of interpreting the situation here, but gosh, these ATV traverses are absolutely superlative. To be more succinct, the work here is instructional and is the main reason I'm here, and secondly, to have a really good time. With that said, I've loved working with Sean Dougherty (Robotics), Chris Zacny (Geotechnics) and Pascal Lee (Director of the HMP and Geologist extraordinaire). I've become friends with everyone here and have learned so much from their respective fields. Three of the younger guys, Mark, Jesse, and Ben are real cool guys. Kira, the logistics manager, is too funny, and Julie, the chef for the season likens me to a vulture because I hover around for each of the meal times. It's all in good fun though, and she's got some of the most hilarious stories I've ever heard.


The traverse today was intended to scout for weather stations and attempt to use them, essentially. The other parts included traversing throughout different areas. Here're some pics:

Haughton Crater

Planet of The Apes Valley behind me

ATV Haughton Crater Crew

Massive Ejecta block from the Impact

Beautiful Trinity Lake (Pond rather)

8 More Days

Today is a break day. Basically, everyone's been working hard since we've arrived that its almost counterproductive to keep working this way, so a break is good. What this means for me is that I get a day to finish some computer related tasks, and I get to pretty much relax. Sunday night, I'm going to speak about some interesting Jovian Moons, their characteristics, and why sending terrestrial and aquatic rovers and the like is a good idea. The weather here has been really really really unexpected. It's been sunny and hovering around 50 Fahrenheit plus or minus 10 degrees, but wind varies day to day and that chill can make temperatures closer to feeling like freezing. This is not the usual form of weather here, and it's interesting being able to be here and experiencing that. There were several days in which it was cold and at 32 F, but I don't mind the sunny weather, not at all. Today gives me a chance read up on some Physics and watch some Hubble Telescope videos so I'm excited about that.


The view when I awoke today was quite amazing, take a gander:

Copyright 2011 Mars Institute
All Rights Reserved

Visible Contrails. You don't usually think of other planes riding over Devon Island but here's one that went straight over camp. Quite amazing actually.

GeoTechnical Pursuits

Dr. Kris Zacny of Honeybee Robotics with College of San Mateo
student and Mars Institute intern Luis Alvarez during the geotechnical
survey of terrain types at and around the Haughton impact structure,
Devon Island, High Arctic. Kris is seen holding the dynamic cone
penetrometer used for the study. The survey is part of the "Robotic Follow-up
Experiment" led by Principal Investigator Dr Maria Bualat of NASA
Ames Research Center and funded by NASA's Moon and Mars Analog
Missions Activities (MMAMA) Program. (Photo Haughton-Mars Project-
2011/Pascal Lee).

Yesterday, I was allowed the opportunity to help Dr. Kris Zacny in a Geotechnical study. I learned a lot, and had to do a bit of math, and one hour before leaving for the field work, I had to learn how to use and coordinate a route on a GPS System I had never used before. Needless to say, I excelled with flying colors. But enough about me. Dr. Zacny took me out, showed me how to go about conducting the survey and answered all questions I had about the survey. What can I say? Only that it's amazing learning new things, especially from individuals like Zacny that care about what they teach and who they're teaching it to.