Engineering Report
11/08/2014
Christiane Heinicke
Today I started making an inventory of the tools in the workshop area. Is there a way to pass the inventory on to the next crew(s) electronically? Like saving it as a file to HAL?
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Update on the ATV issues:
ATV1 was a bit low on oil, 1/4 of full, and some sand was found on the threads of the oil dipstick cap. Since this ATV is one of the three running without any issues, we left it in the state it was in, and will only refill prior to our next ATV-EVA or unless instructed otherwise by Earth. All other ATVs have a full oil reservoirs, clean oil with no visual contamination, including ATV3 and ATV4. We cannot tell if the gas tanks are contaminated or not. All ATV's appear to have about
1/2 tank of fuel.
ATV3 started just fine today and was driven to the road and back without any issues. We have not determined if the problem is intermittent or only occurs after a lengthy drive. ATV4, however, was
more difficult to start, and continued to be cutting of as soon as the throttle was released. ATV4 was driven to the road in order to determine if it was a stationary problem or if it persisted during a drive. The ATV would not drive in reverse initially, despite the throttle being applied. It was pushed backwards, we tried shifting to drive and it slowly puttered forward when full throttle was applied. After a few lurches, the ATV took off quite quickly and was headed toward the road. About halfway, the ATV began to lose energy and had several moments when the driver felt it may die. The ATV made it to the road and as the driver slowed to make a turnaround, it died. The driver was able to restart the ATV after several tries, and it had a no guts at all. ATV was able to drive if the choke was full on, but would cutout if choke was released. ATV was driven back to the Hab, where
it cut out as the driver slowed to a stop.