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just back in... what a day!
Jul. 28th, 2003 03:44 amAfter the aborted long-distance traverse... we went into the center of the crater, having gotten access to Inuit-owned land (IOL). But we could only go on foot, so we drove ATVs to the edge and hiked in. It was gorgeous, and I got temperature profiles from the three 1998 borehole sites. The student that caused the earlier problems became our means of getting into IOL, so she feels better (and I'm not upset anymore ;) I've now gotten my borehole data, so that science goal is met. Yay!
Then we drove up to a high peak (outside IOL) and built an inukshuk -- a lifesized stone figure resembling a human -- on a high peak overlooking the valley. Jeff Jones (the Space Station chief flight surgeon, from JSC) is leading an effort to built seven, one for each of the Columbia crew. There's a memorial capsule at the base of each. I was proud to have the chance to help build one.
As we were finishing, around 1am, a distress call came in on the radio -- a group of our Inuit support staff had gone off into IOL on two ATVs and gotten stuck in deep mud. They were on the other side of the crater, near Tripod Hill. So we pumped up Jeff's ATV tire (he had a slow flat) and entered the crater again on ATVs ourselves, on a rescue mission. We found the four of them on foot, and we all doubled up on the ATVs to ride back to camp, arriving a few minutes ago. Mission accomplished.
The interior of the crater... (pine). I found three shatter-cones in 5 minutes while we loaded. It's breathtakingly beautiful, magnificent, eerie. I'm very glad to have gotten a chance to go back there.
I'll post pictures later... must go to sleep now, it's 4am (and sunny ;-). What a day!
Then we drove up to a high peak (outside IOL) and built an inukshuk -- a lifesized stone figure resembling a human -- on a high peak overlooking the valley. Jeff Jones (the Space Station chief flight surgeon, from JSC) is leading an effort to built seven, one for each of the Columbia crew. There's a memorial capsule at the base of each. I was proud to have the chance to help build one.
As we were finishing, around 1am, a distress call came in on the radio -- a group of our Inuit support staff had gone off into IOL on two ATVs and gotten stuck in deep mud. They were on the other side of the crater, near Tripod Hill. So we pumped up Jeff's ATV tire (he had a slow flat) and entered the crater again on ATVs ourselves, on a rescue mission. We found the four of them on foot, and we all doubled up on the ATVs to ride back to camp, arriving a few minutes ago. Mission accomplished.
The interior of the crater... (pine). I found three shatter-cones in 5 minutes while we loaded. It's breathtakingly beautiful, magnificent, eerie. I'm very glad to have gotten a chance to go back there.
I'll post pictures later... must go to sleep now, it's 4am (and sunny ;-). What a day!
