HMP Research Station Field Update July 19, 2005

After an evening of poor weather we woke up today to much improved conditions. The winds have been light and the sun has made a rare appearance. The temperature at noon was a balmy 6 C (43 F).

A panorama of a part of the HMP Research Station. (Click for larger image.)

This morning the Drilling Automation for Mars Exploration (DAME) team explored the first of its drilling sites at Trinity Lake. In the afternoon the team began to move its equipment to the site to begin drilling tomorrow.

In the meantime the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse Team continues to upgrade the greenhouse and is ahead of schedule. Currently the team has two sets of growth trays prepared. The first which is growing plants now includes lettuce, radishes, basil and zucchini. Another set of trays has the same plants but will begin their growth cycle next spring after the winter sleep. The greenhouse runs through the fall, is dormant (sleep mode) during the winter and is brought back online in the spring from our remote command operations centre at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. A full report including new images will be online within a few days.

The MIT team continues its comprehensive inventory and preliminary analysis of the HMP RS’s assets and supplies as part of a NASA-supported study to define requirements and strategies for interplanetary logistics planning and implementation.

Additions to the Research Station are also underway with several new research tents being put up to accommodate the various activities. Within the next few days we should also have our webcams online.

This evening the wind has picked up a bit, it’s cooler and the sun remains elusive but the rain that has fallen daily since we arrived has stayed away.