Daily Report: Rover Suit Hatch, CRUX Drill, Autonomous Robot
Photo Set: HMP RS - July 22, 2009
Five HMP participants departed on a twin otter flight today. We gave big thanks and said, "Until next time!" to Drs Robert Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul (both faculty at the University of Florida), Tom Graham (Univ. of Guelph), Matt Bamsey (Univ. of Guelph / CSA) and Louis-Phillipe Durocher (Space System Engineer, CSA).
Jesse Weaver (field technician) prepared the Mars-1 Humvee Rover for the space suit team. Montira Satienpoch (Hamilton Sundstrand) sewed visors for the space suit helmet and Addy Overbeeke (Hamilton Sundstrand) is working on the space suit hatch on the back of the Rover. The space suit will be attached to the hatch in the same configuration as NASA's latest Lunar rover prototype.
Dr Essam Heggy (Planetary Scientist, JPL) and Dr Mark Helper (Geologist, MMAMA) started planning for the 24 hour traverse with simulated EVAs that will get underway tomorrow. Dr Helper is working with limited slope data to plan the traverses, having no inside scoop about actual terrain roughness collected last field season to add to the realism of the simulation.
The Drill team, led by Dr Brian Glass (NASA Ames), continued their work with the CRUX drill inside of the Haughton impact structure. The robot team, led by Dr Tim Barfoot (PI, UTIAS) is busy with activities, including traversing to interesting terrain to collect GPR and lidar data, and working with the robot near the HMP Research Station. The robot drove 6 kilometers with no intervention today.
Dr David Musson (McMaster Univ / CSA) gave a stellar after dinner talk titled "The Right Stuff, The Wrong Stuff and No Stuff". He showed us data regarding different categories of people (students, astronauts, commercial pilots, etc) and how they differ on various personality tests. He postulated on which high scores may be applicable to future long duration flights.
Photo Set: HMP RS - July 22, 2009
