Tuesday 24th September
The first of the Magplanes was unable to liftoff because its engine was grossly underpowered. Holly and Allen tried valiantly but could not get the plane in the air. The test flights came to an end when the Magplane crashed into a termite mound and damaged the landing gear. Dave provides a scale for the termite mound. Assembling and instrument testing of the second mag plane was the next step in the process of trying to make Magplane fly.
The magnetometer team continues to acquire data inside the crater and together with the biology teams acquire information about the flora and fauna including this beautiful deer (A / B) They advance beyond the crocodile pool and find an intermittent channel with many pools left from the rainy season. By one of the pools they discover vultures eating a dead tapir.
Out of Palmasola Miguel, TimK, Jim and Holly travelled by boat and foot, sampling soil and soil nodules along some of the river bank sites identified by Bob as being geological significant in tracing the crater origins. Bob had mapped out sites likely to yield more information on the crater morphology for further exploration.
The third WEBCAST takes place as PeterW and PeterH present a discussion of the expedition education strategies. The primary support for this expedition came from the NASA Goddard Directors Discretionary Fund (DDF) for Education. Consequently the education program which is also responsible for the website is the driver of the content programming.
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