EVA 001
EVA 001 Report
17 Dec 2012
Written by Diane Turnshek
Our first Crew 120 EVA, my first EVA ever, began at 9:00 am Monday, December 17, 2012. I arose hours earlier, made the mistake of taking vitamins on an empty stomach and felt nauseous for the hour leading up to the EVA. Shades of Mary Roach’s book Packing for Mars haunted me. She posed the question, “What happens when you vomit in a space helmet?” Thankfully, the queasy feeling was pushed out by excitement. Our destination was Hab Ridge, and the interesting geological formations along the way.
I had long, DogFunk thermals on under my suit and thin gloves, which worked perfectly for the morning temperature--chilly with a wind blowing. When we stepped out through the main hatch, after gawking at the gorgeous surroundings for a minute, John Reynolds in suit 1 strode off first in line, followed by April Davis in suit 6 and me in suit 4. Derek Pelland in suit 5, hung back to watch our rear. My suit 4 had fan problems, which resulted in intermittent airflow and increased condensation on the faceplate. April’s helmet fogged badly, too, so I had company. It wasn’t bad if I kept the person in front of me about five feet ahead so I could see their feet. The isolation was extreme. I started talking to myself. “Ever since you were a kid, this has been your dream. Are you enjoying yourself?” It was hard to nod vigorously in the suit, but I tried.
Our first stop was shell beach on top of Lower Blue Hills. That meant up and then up some more, passing layered rock along the right side of our steep path. We kept stopping to look at formations.
My cell phone camera wouldn’t work because suit gloves don’t conduct electricity. John was the only one with a digital SLR camera. We stopped at the top for photos, and then turned around to look for the fossilized shells and April said, “They’re here . . . they’re everywhere.” We filled canisters with shell bits and quart bags of shells and stashed them in my hip pouch. April dug up using Derek’s multi-purpose tool.
This area was under a layer of snow last week. We imagined throwing snowballs and having them splat on each other’s suit faceplates-what fun!
At 9:35, Erick and Nora in the Hab tried to contact us, but we had problems hearing them. Derek observed that once you make peace with the fact that you can’t scratch that itch on your face, the urge goes away. I just scratched my chin in the inside rim of the suit collar. By 9:55, we were at the blueberry field and put the rust-colored round nuggets in the container with the blue pen marks on top. Note for next time, bring a Sharpie, a ruler, a digging tool and a magnet.
We passed an anthill, reminding me of the end of “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin. We walked on and I missed getting my picture taken by the hill, so I asked Derek to let me know if he saw any more. “Why,” he asked, “are you hungry?”
We got in touch with the Hab again. Derek explained military designations to me (our intitials): April: Alpha Delta, Me: Delta Tango, Nora: November Sierra
We kept hiking to Hab Ridge to check the extent of the blueberry fields. The last crew had mentioned tracks they found resembling those left by pogo stick riders: roundish holes in single file (but not deep). We saw some that were round and some distinctive ones that actually showed cloven hoof prints. We identified them as possible mountain goat footprints.
Off the path we found some unusual things, a possible fossilized animal footprint and a round, dark, 3-inch stone sitting in the middle of light-colored rock with splay marks, as if the stone fell into mud that solidified to rock.
All too soon, at 10:40, time to head back to the Hab with 2000 grams of rocks swinging in my hip bag. All too soon, we were decompressing in the airlock. All too soon, my first EVA was over.
Looking forward to my first ATV EVA.
17 Dec 2012
Written by Diane Turnshek
Our first Crew 120 EVA, my first EVA ever, began at 9:00 am Monday, December 17, 2012. I arose hours earlier, made the mistake of taking vitamins on an empty stomach and felt nauseous for the hour leading up to the EVA. Shades of Mary Roach’s book Packing for Mars haunted me. She posed the question, “What happens when you vomit in a space helmet?” Thankfully, the queasy feeling was pushed out by excitement. Our destination was Hab Ridge, and the interesting geological formations along the way.
I had long, DogFunk thermals on under my suit and thin gloves, which worked perfectly for the morning temperature--chilly with a wind blowing. When we stepped out through the main hatch, after gawking at the gorgeous surroundings for a minute, John Reynolds in suit 1 strode off first in line, followed by April Davis in suit 6 and me in suit 4. Derek Pelland in suit 5, hung back to watch our rear. My suit 4 had fan problems, which resulted in intermittent airflow and increased condensation on the faceplate. April’s helmet fogged badly, too, so I had company. It wasn’t bad if I kept the person in front of me about five feet ahead so I could see their feet. The isolation was extreme. I started talking to myself. “Ever since you were a kid, this has been your dream. Are you enjoying yourself?” It was hard to nod vigorously in the suit, but I tried.
Our first stop was shell beach on top of Lower Blue Hills. That meant up and then up some more, passing layered rock along the right side of our steep path. We kept stopping to look at formations.
My cell phone camera wouldn’t work because suit gloves don’t conduct electricity. John was the only one with a digital SLR camera. We stopped at the top for photos, and then turned around to look for the fossilized shells and April said, “They’re here . . . they’re everywhere.” We filled canisters with shell bits and quart bags of shells and stashed them in my hip pouch. April dug up using Derek’s multi-purpose tool.
This area was under a layer of snow last week. We imagined throwing snowballs and having them splat on each other’s suit faceplates-what fun!
At 9:35, Erick and Nora in the Hab tried to contact us, but we had problems hearing them. Derek observed that once you make peace with the fact that you can’t scratch that itch on your face, the urge goes away. I just scratched my chin in the inside rim of the suit collar. By 9:55, we were at the blueberry field and put the rust-colored round nuggets in the container with the blue pen marks on top. Note for next time, bring a Sharpie, a ruler, a digging tool and a magnet.
We passed an anthill, reminding me of the end of “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin. We walked on and I missed getting my picture taken by the hill, so I asked Derek to let me know if he saw any more. “Why,” he asked, “are you hungry?”
We got in touch with the Hab again. Derek explained military designations to me (our intitials): April: Alpha Delta, Me: Delta Tango, Nora: November Sierra
We kept hiking to Hab Ridge to check the extent of the blueberry fields. The last crew had mentioned tracks they found resembling those left by pogo stick riders: roundish holes in single file (but not deep). We saw some that were round and some distinctive ones that actually showed cloven hoof prints. We identified them as possible mountain goat footprints.
Off the path we found some unusual things, a possible fossilized animal footprint and a round, dark, 3-inch stone sitting in the middle of light-colored rock with splay marks, as if the stone fell into mud that solidified to rock.
All too soon, at 10:40, time to head back to the Hab with 2000 grams of rocks swinging in my hip bag. All too soon, we were decompressing in the airlock. All too soon, my first EVA was over.
Looking forward to my first ATV EVA.