Engineering Report
12/11/2014
Victor Luo
Today was my last EVA. A little bittersweet as they are becoming quite productive and routine. The highlight of the EVA was trying to keep ATV4 alive as it continues to struggle running from the main fuel tank. Seems to work relatively alright using the reserve tank, although I’m sure that’s not the preferred method of operation.
What’s the status on ATV2’s brakes? I’m pretty confident in that ATV’s performance otherwise. If ATV2 is still out of commission, will we be allowed to use the red guy?
Backpack 1 went down again today. Fuse problem again. We cleaned up the wiring and the electrical taping inside. At this point, our educated guess is that the current when plugging into the wall power is irregular (the physical connection wiggles a bit). So we would recommend securely connecting the pack to the power cord first before plugging the charger into the power strip (wall).
We took a look inside the water pump motor today and it’s clear why the thing doesn’t turn on. See attached photos for more. We also fully detached the water pump in preparation for the new pump. Since we are likely to come out of sim tomorrow, should we go pick it up then? As you can see below, we are doing amazing on our water usage.
The water meter never lies.
Also attached is my engineer handoff checklist that I forgot to send yesterday.
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Diesel: 30%
Propane: 80%
Water: 17.5/40in
Water meter: 89067.8
Water usage/person: 0.0L
Morale: Yesterday on EVA, as we were walking towards
the edge of a large plateau, I thought for a second that I could see the ocean. Today, as we are nearing the end of sim, I can smell the ocean from here.
Smelliness: Not bad. Most of us dunked our heads in a bucket
of water and did a quick shampoo. We were able to reuse most of the water for the toilet so I’d say it’s a pretty good strategy for saving water. And cleaning yourself.
Tony: In 1984, Tony went to London for the first
time. His English wasn’t great at the time, but he got hungry and decided to stop by a café for some eats. When he was finished he asked the waitress if he could have some “kidnaps”. And of course she freaked out. Of course he meant napkins. Oh Tony.