MDRS Crew 147 Andrew Henry Journalist Report 01/20/15 ATVs are so much fun! We took the ATVs out today on an EVA to capture some GPS data and to gather some more quadcopter data. In the process we saw some more of the incredible local scenery. Astronauts on a real Mars mission will see some awesome scenery too, but their vehicles will be a little less liberating than our ATVs. The current design calls for a kind of mini-hab on wheels that crews can take on multi-day drives across the Martian terrain. NASA’s imaginatively named Space Exploration Vehicle (almost as inspiring as the Space Launch System) is the size of a truck and can support two astronauts for up to fourteen days. It has twelve wheels that can rotate 360 degrees for maximum maneuverability. Although its top speed is a modest 10km/h, this still puts the Curiosity rover’s 0.14km/h to shame. Exploration by humans is much more efficient than by robots! The crew who stayed back in the hab had another workout in our downstairs gym/science deck. As we don’t have any exercise equipment here our workouts consist mostly of bodyweight exercises and stationary running and jumping. We had another mousy visitor in the early hours of this morning, and this time one of our crew managed to snap a picture of the little tyke. To be fair though, he’s pretty adorable. We let this one go on his way under the condition that he tells his little friends not to bother us any more. I’m confident he will keep his end of the deal; he had trustworthy eyes. We have also started planning for the arrival of the next crew. Hard to believe that they arrive in four days time! This means our rotation is nearly done! Before the next crew arrive we need to clean the hab, and prepare our briefings. During the handover we will be responsible for training the incoming crew on how to operate the hab and its various systems, including the EVA packs, the ATVs, the rover, etc. Tomorrow is a GPS calibration exercise for the wrist mounted EVA assistant software. While that probably doesnt sound particularly scintillating, it’s an important exercise in validating the software, and a great excuse to see some more of the amazing local scenery.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 04:27:23 +0000
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