Purpose: Exploration of Candor Chasma, via Pinto Hills

Participants: Greg Michael, Kathleen Johnson

Duration: 1530-1800 (2hr30)

Weather: Clear skies, 18C, light wind

Maximum distance from Hab: 7 km

Route: Lowell Highway to J9 (UTM 12S E0519940 N4248040 NAD27), Pinto Hills Road into Candor Chasma (E522600 N4250810 NAD27), stopping at White Rock Reservoir (E520600 N4248600 NAD27).

Description: Arriving at the first waypoint (J9), we found nothing like the road we were expecting from the map, so suspecting more GPS coordinate problems, we drove on another 500m, still not finding it. We turned back on ourselves and tried 500m past the point in the opposite direction. The best candidate for the road was a broad wash pretty near the waypoint. About 30m along the wash, there were some faint tracks out onto the desert, but we took them for rogue ATV tracks, and continued east/southeast along the stream bed.

We photographed some crossbedded sediments for Gregorio's project to compare images with those of MER Opportunity, but soon realised that we weren't on the intended route. The wash became a canyon, which we expected, at least, to lead into Candor Chasma. This idea was brought to a halt by an Earthly barbed-wire cattle fence. We climbed up to the edge of the canyon on foot only to find the road a few tens of metres away - as big as Lowell Highway. Not much further along we came to the road to Hanksville - we were indeed on Lowell Highway. Once more we looked out over Muddy Creek, and waved to a few of the natives, passing by in their unpressurised transportation units.

So once more, we returned to J9. This time, looking more carefully, we could see that the faint tracks we'd seen before ran a long way into the distance - this was the road we were looking for. I reset the GPS to point to White Rock Reservoir, and we set off. The tracks were not of an ATV, but of a larger vehicle - this had to be the 4WD road. But it never got closer than 600m from the waypoint. We kept going, not wanting to see J9 yet again, and the track becoming an established road. Suddenly, Stacey's Cake appeared over the horizon. This road joins up with Cactus Road, but we didn't recall having seen it on the map. Later at the Hab we confirmed it really isn't marked, although it's clearly an old and long-used track. We'll make it a future objective to correctly map it. We doubled back once more to find the way to the White Rock - we could see it, but found no path to reach it. Once more at J9, we decided that we'd exhausted our fortune for the day, and returned to the Hab.

Lessons Learned: Not every EVA meets its objective.