Dispatch from Mars Society Arctic Expedition Robert Zubrin July 25, 2001
Our numbers were strengthened today by a new crew member, Lt. Col. John Blitch. John was brought into
the crew to replace Steve Braham, whose continued participation in the simulation has been made
impossible by his burden of responsibilities for the Haughton Mars Project (HMP) communication system.
John, a US Army robotics expert, was (and is) scheduled for participation in the fourth crew rotation,
which begins Saturday. Bringing him into the station early to substitute for Steve was thus a simple
move.
It is true that on Mars it will not be possible to switch out crew members as needed. Then again, on Mars crew members will not have other jobs that make their replacement necessary.
In any case, John’s appearance was a welcome one, for it not only added to our human strength; he brought robots with him as well. The three machines that accompanied him today looked like futuristic black toy tanks with characteristic dimensions and mass varying from those comparable to a coconut to that of a watermelon. He demonstrated these devices to the crew, who were all pleased by the capabilities they offered, but clearly disturbed by the news that none of the little fellows had names. We quickly remedied this glaring defect, dubbing the creatures in order from smallest to largest; Stumpy, Jan, and Titan. (There was a significant minority opinion in favor of naming Stumpy “Sebastian,” since he looks a great deal like the character of that name in the Disney movie “The Little Mermaid.” Jan got her name after the middle-child of ‘the Brady Bunch.” Compared to the others Titan is a titan, and so could get no other name.)
These three robots were all tethered devices, controlled by wire. John’s wireless robots will be brought to the station tomorrow. The question is, what practical use might such machines (whether wired or wireless) be to human Mars explorers.
On the basis of our simulation activity here, it has become abundantly clear that once you have human explorers on Mars, it makes no sense to send robots anywhere the crew can go. The reason for this is that human explorers so vastly outclass robots as investigatory agents that it is simply a waste to time to send a robot to sites accessible by humans. This is true even though not every member of the crew can go EVA every day. Crew time inside the hab is almost as valuable as crew time outside, and to waste it by assigning a hab-based crew member to spend all day trying to get a robot to accomplish what an EVA astronaut could do in 2 minutes is just plain silly.
But there are places where an astronaut cannot go. One such place is under the station. The commander of Mars craft might be very interested in finding out about the condition of the tanks and fuel lines under his vehicle. If his hab stood as close to the ground as Flashline Station does (which is strongly desired for EVA purposes), it would be next to impossible to get a suited astronaut under it to carry out the inspection. Similarly, I would like to know the condition of the structural supports beneath Flashline Station, but can’t get an EVA team under it. So send in the robots.
The robots were carried outside by Charles, Cathrine, and I enroute to our reconnaissance EVA to the north. I hooked up Stumpy to his outside control cable, leaving the little guy enslaved to the combined will of Brent and John, his masters inside the hab. Then we took off towards the Von Braun Planitia, with Inuit Ranger Joe Amaralik riding shotgun to protect us from polar bears (two of which were sighted by the HMP helicopter yesterday.)
We have been to Von Braun several times now, so we crossed it rapidly, reaching a stream backed by a formidable rocky ridge that marked the plain’s northern edge at around UTM north 8377 km. We could not tackle this obstacle head on, but we wanted to get further in order to reach a feature on our aerial photographs that looked like it might be a canyon at UTM north 8380 km, east 421 km. So we took off to the east, where there were some hills that our ATV’s could climb. From this high ground we were able to discern a passable route to some other high ground north east of us, and we used that hill top to plan out a path that would take us further. Repeating this process, we eventually reached a high bluff from which we could look down upon a lake big enough to water-ski in (if you live in Colorado, and so aren’t that choosy about such things.) Below the bluff the slope leading towards the lake leveled out into a heavily graveled wash that led on towards the north. The royal road. We doubled back and took it right up to the rim of the canyon.
Now this canyon was no giant like the Grand Canyon, but canyon it was, some 150 ft deep. All canyons are of interest to geologists, because when water cuts through rock it lays bare the history of past ages in layer after layer of exposed strata. Moreover, the canyon bottom will have samples from every age. So Charles and Cathrine had a great time running around the canyon rim photographing the geomorphology (that which non-geologists call “scenery”) and collecting samples. In addition to various carbonate rocks, Charles found some brain coral and I found a very odd stromatolite. Unfortunately the most interesting place to go would have been into the canyon itself, but the slope seemed too steep for safe descent. So after doing all the exploration we could from the rim, we headed back, reaching the Flashline Station around 5:30 PM.
When we got home, we heard that Stumpy had had a great day too. Directed by his intrepid commanders Brent, John, and Christine, the robot had traveled everywhere under the hab and imaged its supporting structure. Fortunately its data on that matter was reassuring. Stumpy was so successful in this underworld inspection job that Brent, as station capcom, requested that we wait outside while Stumpy examined the underside of our ATVs. Stumpy got under my ATV well enough, then using his headlights for illumination, slowly and carefully imaged every feature of its substructure. This process annoyed me more than a little, since I had been in a spacesuit for 6 hours and really wanted to make use of the hab’s facilities. So I politely suggested to Brent that Stumpy could do his work just as well without a live audience, and we entered the lock.
Later, after everyone was refreshed and relaxed, we held a debriefing and worked out our plans for the next day. The plan is this: Tomorrow we will take robots with us into the field. Specifically, we will go back to the canyon rim with Titan and a comparable wireless model called Talon, and send them in. We will see what robots and humans acting in a combined operation can do.
When I logged onto my computer to check for email, there were a large number from my wife Maggie, who this year, with me absent in the Arctic, is doing almost all the work in arranging the Mars Society convention which will be held August 23-26 at Stanford University. She has massive scheduling problems: there are dozens of terrific speakers who really deserve plenaries, and over 100 papers in all. Astronaut Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander will speak, as will famed science fiction authors Greg Benford, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Geoff Landis. There will be exobiology experts like Chris McKay and Imre Friedman. I will speak. Pascal will speak. JPL Mars exsploration experts will speak. There will be panels of Flashline Station crew members, a panel on Mars and the envoronment, a panel on terraforming, a presentation of a new Mars Society produced movie, etc. There’s too much good stuff and not enough time to schedule it all. She’s worried. I’m not. I know she will figure it out It may turn out as bit chaotic, but it will be great nevertheless. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be the Woodstock of Mars.
