15 July 2000: Marc Boucher’s Personal Journal: Base Camp, Devon Island
Note: Information on the current field season, as well as past seasons can be found here.
Summer is Here, For a Day
What can I say? When the sun comes out and the sky is blue this is an incredibly beautiful place. What few high clouds
we had were spectacularly streaming in the direction of the north pole which is about 1500KM from here.
(See the picture below) For the arctic it was even a warm summer day with temperatures hovering around 8ºC.
HF Communication is Offline
Due to the solar flare our high frequency radio which is always on to communicate with The Polar Continental Shelf Project
support in Resolute Bay is out of commission. All we get is static. However we have a satellite phone at our disposal but it
is very expensive and our time on it is limited. So to solve our comms problem we communicate by email and by webphone when the
connection is good.
My First Traverse
I spent the morning getting caught up on my web work but in the afternoon, like the majority of people here, I went on a traverse
into Haughton Crater. My group went to a small lake about 3KM southeast of base camp. The group included Darlene Lim and Marianne
Douglas from the University of Toronto who were taking core samples of the lake bottom, Patrick Van Hove from the Université Laval
who was taking water samples, Charlie Cockell from the British Antarctic Survey who was setting up ultra violet(UV) sensors in the lake,
and a two person crew from Discovery Canada who were filming Darlene and Marianne for a documentary. All of today’s research
being done was a part of NASA’s Haugton-Mars Project (HMP).
It took about 25 minutes to get to the lake. We traveled in a convoy of five ATV’s with two people doubled up on two ATV’s. One
of the ATV’s was hauling a trailer full of gear. We followed a “road” that had been marked out earlier in the season. To
minimize environmental impact to the crater and surrounding areas we follow these marked roads. No one is allowed to create
their own roads except when exploring a new area. And in these instances a road is mapped out beforehand to the extent it can be.
But once established we don’t deviate from the roads. However you can explore by foot along the way, but never alone. The
buddy system is employed here. We are in such a remote place with many dangers that no one goes out alone. One mishap could bring
the project to halt and getting help is very difficult. We went nearly a week without a plane coming in because of the weather.
Getting to our destination was thrill. Riding in convoy over some rough terrain through sweeping valleys with almost no sign of
life in sight and breccia* hills in the distance was inspiring. We did see very small groupings of flowers in a few spots. The
first real sign of life I had seen since leaving base camp. Our base camp really is barren, an excellent Mars analog. After
we got to the lake it was time for the scientists to get to work. The lake itself is surrounded by small hills including one
breccia field. You could walk a short distance to the edge of one hill and get a panoramic view of the eastern part of the crater.
Charlie headed to the other end of the lake and immediately
began setting up his UV experiments. Darlene and Marianne set about looking for a suitable place in the lake to core. The lake
really is quite small and shallow. The Discovery crew began setting up to film them. Patrick started taking water samples.
I spent my time taking pictures and video.
* Breccia defined: A grey rubble deposit resulting from the launching, airborne mixing, fallback and weak rewelding of
impact-shattered fragments derived from the entire stack of excavated rocks.
Darlene and Marianne are looking for live diatoms in the water and dead diatoms in the core samples. By dating the different layers
of the core sample and finding different varieties of diatoms they hope to build a climate model of the area going back several
thousands years. It took a few hours to get two cores and bag the different layers of each core. I was volunteered to help them
with the bagging process. I was happy to oblige. For my work I was initiated as a working limnologist by getting the last drops
of the core mud smeared on my face. I wasn’t sure if I had been had but the Discovery crew took great pleasure in filming it. I
was told afterwards by others that indeed this was a ritual.
After I had fulfilled my bagging duties I went over to the breccia hill and started looking for shattercone rocks. These are
rocks that have been “shocked” by the impact of the asteroid or comet that hit. The rock has small faults stemming from
one point and extending outwards in a cone shape. (See picture below) I’ll be bringing some samples to the Mars Society
convention for people to view. These rocks are only found in impact craters and this crater is unique in the volume
of breccia available to search through. Indeed a rare rock to get!
Our traverse started at 2PM and by 6:30PM we were back at base camp.
Zubrin Arrives
We got back to base camp and got word that Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society was due to arrive at 21:30. This would
be our first opportunity to meet in person since the failed paradrop to go over the plan that is being formulated to try and
proceed with construction of the habitat this year. When he arrived, Pascal Lee, Mars Society Project Scientist and the
NASA HMP Lead, myself, a board member, and Frank Schubert a very experienced construction contractor
sat down to discuss the plan that had been formulated along with the construction crews input. We had a good discussion and we hope
that within a day or two we can have a decision on what will be done.
After the meeting Frank, Robert and Pascal went to Haynes Ridge to examine the habitat panels and construction site. As it was past
midnight and I had stayed up late several nights in a row I decided to get some sleep.
Photo Gallery: