Eva Report 01/14/2015
Andrew Henry
Eva Number: 2
Eva Date: 2015-01-15
Time Slot:laterAM
Purpose:
The EVA today had two science objectives. The first was a shakedown of the arm-mounted smartphone navigation tool, on a short pedestrian EVA. The second science objective was to take a longer EVA in order to collect a GPS trace of the road leading to the quarry, which will be used as contextual information in the EVA planning tool.
Narrative:
The aim was to commence the EVA at 10am, EVA prep took a little longer than planned and the crew finally entered the airlock at 10:27am. After depressurizing the airlock, the three crew members took their first step on “Mars” at 10:32am. It was a beautiful clear day today. The effect of this was to thaw the overnight freeze, resulting in very muddy conditions.
The crew proceeded first to ATV 5 and replaced the plastic sheet on it with a more substantial deflated air mattress as with the other ATVs. Following this task, the crew checked the water levels in the static tank, and reported this back to the habcom. After checking the water levels, the EVA crew walked to the diesel and propane tanks and checked these also. The levels will be included in the engineer’s report.
During this EVA, the crew were using the VOX setting on the radios which worked well, once we got the hang of it. We have adopted the convention of using a code word “transmit” to trigger the voice tx, and then delivering our message using our standard radio protocol.
The crew then began the first part of the science mission at 10:46am, in which the crew made a pedestrian traverse to waypoint 219 (the junction of Cow Dung road with the Hab approach road). EVA leader Andrew Henry experience issues with communicating with habcom when he was out of sight of the hab. As such, the crew re-entered the airlock at 11:00am in order to switch out Andrew’s radio. The crew stepped back inside the hab at 11:05am.
After switching out the radio, the crew cycled the airlock again, and stepped back outside at 11:18. Following an orientation on ATV use for crew member Danielle DeLatte, the crew began their ATV traverse at 11:30am. The target of the ATV traverse was the quarry. The traverse itself was extremely muddy, and although the ATVs experienced some traction issues, it was largely uneventful. The crew noted that communications with habcom were lost at around the 2km mark. The quarry was reached at 12:15pm. After a 15 minute stop at the quarry, the crew began the ATV traverse back to the hab at 12:30pm, returning at 1:15pm. After cycling the airlock, the crew re-entered the hab at 1:20pm. The three ATVs used on the EVA all worked well, as did the three suits, with no issues reported.
Eva Depart Time:
10:32
Check In Time One:
10:52
Check In One E:
518395
Check In One N:
4250580
Check In Note One:
Junction between Cow Dung road, and Hab approach road.
Check In Time Two:
11:30
Check In East Two:
518395
Check In Note Two:
Junction between Cow Dung road, and Hab approach road, checkin on way out to quarry
Check In Time Three:
11:35
Check In East Three:
Check In North Three:
Check In Note Three:
3.8km from quarry
Check In Time Four:
12:15
Check In East Four:
518310
Check In North Four:
4255790
Check In Note Four:
At quarry
Eva Return Time:
13:15
Wp1 E:
518395
Wp1 N:
4250580
Waypoint1arrive Time:
10:52
Eva W P1depart Time:
10:53
Wp1 Find:
Successful shakedown of arm-mounted computer app
Wp2 E:
518230
Wp2 N:
4250725
Eva W P2arrive Time:
11:05
Eva W P2depart Time:
11:18
Wp2 Find:
Returned to Hab to switch out radio, and then proceeded back outside
Wp3 E:
518310
Wp3 N:
4255790
Eva W P3arrive Time:
12:15
Eva W P3depart Time:
12:30
Wp3 Find:
At quarry
Wp4 E:
518230
Wp4 N:
4250725
Eva W P4arrive Time:
13:15
Eva W P4depart Time:
Waypoint Four Finding:
Waypoint Five Easting:
Waypoint Five Northing:
Waypoint Five Arrive Time:
Waypoint Five Depart Time:
Waypoint Five Findings: