Here's CheMin!

I guess this would be a good time to introduce the instrument that I'm babysitting. We (my colleagues at inXitu and I) spent the summer building this instrument, so this is its maiden voyage. This version is the latest in a long pedigree of miniature X-ray diffraction instruments that David Blake and colleagues have been working on for the last 15 years or so. A parallel version is the one that has been selected for the Mars Science Laboratory mission that will be launched in late summer, 2009. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena is building that version. Here is a movie of the MSL rover and CheMin.
Overall, we were very happy with the way the instrument performed, but it was nice to have a little downtime to fix small annoyances.

Catching up on work

When we arrived the next morning to the island of Nordauslandet, the weather was quite cold, and it had apparently snowed during the night.


A small party went ashore to investigate a seabird rookery, where lots of birds nest and fertilize the surrounding land. Meanwhile, I took advantage of the break in geological action (and being driven below decks by the cold wind) to get some work done. We had been collecting quite a few samples the last few days, and needed to run them in CheMin and add the results to the expedition database. Here's me drilling a rock to get a powdered sample to analyze:
The stylish purple gloves are to protect the sample from organic material from my hands.

80 degrees north

We pulled out of Bockfjorden in the evening and cruised north. It was exciting to leave the shelter of the fjord and head out into the open arctic ocean, with nothing between us and the north coast of Alaska but the north pole. The seas picked up considerably as we left the fjord, and although it was not rough by normal seafaring standards, I was a little worried about getting seasick, as I've spent a few fishing trips in the Gulf of Mexico feeding the fish. The only solution of course, was to stand out on deck and take the fresh air. Once you're out on deck, you might as well have a sip of aquavit to ward off the chill. So, a small group of us stood out on the deck, getting our sea legs and telling lies late into the evening. We passed the 80th parallel at about 1.30 in the evening, to renewed celebration.

I never did get seasick the whole trip. It was never very rough, although our lab was in the forecastle, and it did get a bit rolly up there at times. Seasickness is a funny thing. I've been sick in 1 ft seas, but fine in 6 ft seas in a 17 foot boat.