Science Report
01/14/2015
Danielle DeLatte
Today was a productive day for science! All team members made progress on their various experiments.
Team EVA Planning Tool (Henry & DeLatte) did their first EVA using ATVs, assisted by another crew member for documentation. All three ATVs worked on the first try and the team set out to map the ATV roads in order to create a GPS waypoint road that would feed into the software planning tool. While on EVA, the team "recorded" the path using the Android application. Driving the ATVs was great fun, all in the name of science! They ended at a MDRS waypoint - the location of certain extinct invertebrates. No life signs were found, but the team came back with an excellent road waypoint map. They will be adding the road to the software for future use in the coming days.
Team Quadcopter (Rammo & Rodriguez) recovered their quadcopter from the previous day's unfortunate mud landing and cleaned it back to tip top shape. They planned an EVA for tomorrow to the brain rock formation, petrified stump, and probably site of petrified tree.
Team Astronomy (MacPhee & Garifi) finally caught a break in the weather and began observations and calibration in the early evening. They look forward to some better weather in the coming days!
The Sociomapping experiment (Charles) put out another survey for the team to fill out. Note: a previous report incorrectly stated the collaboration on this experiment. The PI, Lucie Bezchlebova, is from the Czech Republic University and is part of the QED group.
The crew members continue to collaborate between experiments and assist by documenting or acting as HabCom for each other. The team work between members of projects and between the whole crew has been excellent and has allowed everyone to be more productive.
Crew scientist signing off!