Habitat working area

The experiments were to be executed by a crew of four people during an EVA of at least five hours. Katy Quinn gave her place in the crew to Charles Cockell, as his knowledge of the crater could be useful. The other three members were Robert Zubrin, Bill Clancey and myself.

After cooking a warm breakfast, i.e. throwing the contents of a can of corn beef in a pan, we started to prepare at around 10:00. After loading the trailer at around 11:00 we were all ready to go. I rode the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) with the trailer carrying the 130 kg of instruments and followed Charles. The weather was cloudy and drizzling so we expected to find some spots of mud but our instructions were simple: do not stop in mud!

Well, we did find some mud en route but it was the mud that stopped us. I drove the ATV as fast as possible trying to avoid getting stuck but my speed gradually and desperately decreased in the huge pool of mud. Coming to a stop, I could feel the ATV and the trailer starting to sink in the mud, when I got off the ATV I immediately sank as well, up to my knees.

It became more and more difficult to move as the mud was so sticky. Luckily, the others on their single ATVs escaped a similar fate and came to my rescue. After debating on what to do, whether we should pull the ATV and the trailer with the other ATVs or unload the trailer and leave the boxes in the mud, we tried every possible combination of pushing and pulling, both by hand and by ATV, but to no avail.

Eventually we had to seek external help and after more than an hour we managed to pull the trailer out. By that time we were all in mud up to our knees. The only reason we did not sink any deeper was that we were actually standing on the permafrost. I fell several times in the mud helping to push the trailer, breaking the cable antenna off my radio, so I no longer had communications. Also, with mud covering gloves and helmets we were unable to talk and communicate with each other.

In the end we decided to abort the EVA and to return to the Habitat. I felt most frustrated by the situation as we would be unable to carry out scientific measurements but considering the conditions and the circumstances, I had to recognise that it was the wisest decision to take. We all wanted to return to the Habitat to get some rest.  
 

Bill working in the Habitat

However, it was not to be so easy. Unbelievably, on our way back the ATV with the trailer again got stuck into the mud. The last time that a similar situation happened to me was in Africa, more than 15 years ago, when I was stuck several times in flash rain and mud. But here in the arctic, nobody would have thought that we would have so much rain in the last weeks, making it so hard to move around.

Eventually, still wearing our space suits, we managed to get the trailer out again. Once more I fell on my knees in the mud but this time I had mud up to my hips as I was on all fours on the permafrost, in 50 cm of arctic mud. Luckily one of my fellow crewmembers came to help me out, as on my own I would not have made it. Finally we arrived back at the Habitat, after 3½ hours of a muddy EVA.

We were so tired that it took us another 30 minutes to take off the suits and the undergarments, that were totally soaked with mud and icy cold water, and to start to feel like humans again. A few hours later we debriefed and everybody agreed it was the worst muddy experience that had happened so far in all the arctic campaigns.

Of course, there is no mud on Mars and in that sense, this simulated EVA was not representative of a Martian activity. However, Bill Clancey was able to monitor the human factors involved in an EVA, including the interaction among the four EVA crewmembers and the underlying group dynamics in such adverse conditions. So, in one sense at least it was an instructive day but not, unfortunately, for our geophysics experiment.

Anyway, we will try to deploy the geophone flute tomorrow on Haynes Ridge, in front of the Habitat, in order to complete the three-dimensional characterisation of the underground structure of the crater rim. Tough luck for the crater itself.