Special Science Report

February 6, 2008

Kerry Cupit


Project:
Soil Gas Analysis at MDRS as a Rapid Resource and Geologic Assessment
Tool


Personnel:
Kerry Cupit


Operations Data Collected:
Finished modifications to soil gas tubing this morning and found
additional equipment in the lab to use as an alternative method for
connecting the sampler pipe/tube to the gas analyzer. No further
problems are expected, and both methods should work well once more
field trials are done.

Performed a lineament analysis using air photos in the hab, identifying
11 possible fault traces. These were then rated on a scale of 1 to 3,
with 1 being an ideal candidate, 2 is a good candidate, and 3 is a
possible candidate.

The lineament analysis identified one ideal candidate, seven good
candidates and three possible candidates in the area around MDRS.

In the afternoon we practiced loading equipment onto the ATV. The new
box installed on the back of one of the ATVs is perfect for protecting
and enabling rapid transport of equipment. However, hole #3 wasn't
drilled today due to lack of time needed to reach the hole location on
EVA-7, therefore the second field test of the soil gas equipment was
not completed.


Technical/Equipment Issues:
Equipment is in optimal condition. The availability of ATVs for future
science activities simplifies things.

The soil sampler device that was shipped to the Hab along with the
auger is not needed. It may be shipped out on the next Mars transfer
module (Don) in order to avoid additional rental fees!


Discussion:
My confidence in the equipment is high, so I may proceed to the next
step and not attempt to redo today's planned field test. Instead,
reconnaissance of features identified in the air photo lineament
analysis as having a higher probability of being a fault trace will be
investigated in an extended EVA planned for tomorrow morning. During
this EVA, we may stop for 20-30 minutes to perform a field test, to
kill two birds with one stone.


Questions for RST:
None at this time.

(Why does a Mars rock taste better than an Earth rock? It's a little
meteor!)