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Elaine Walker's Personal Journal - HMP 2004 Education and Public Outreach July 22, 2004 - Resolute Adventures Regarding our flight this morning, the second try was a charm and we made it to Resolute Bay! We were surprised to see Pascal Lee (SETI Institute/Mars Institute/NASA Ames) there to greet us. We thought he had been on Devon for a week already. Pascal is Project Lead for the NASA Haughton-Mars Project, but today he was also our chauffeur and comedic tour guide. He has been stranded in Resolute Bay by weather for almost a week now. He drives us to Qausuittuq Inn where we were hoping we'd just be stopping for lunch. We dine and take turns on a dial up internet connection. After a series of "if's" and "maybe's" we found out we would be staying the night. This is a dormitory of sorts, but a nice one with a great cook who is catering to my vegetarianism generously. And I mean generously. The highlight of the day was when Sekou Crawford (NASA Ames) took out medical sensors that he brought from NASA Ames and asked if I'd like to take part in some research. This research is part of the Autonomous Medical Care Initiative being done between multiple NASA centers. Sekou is the principal investigator and he will be working with JD Polk (NASA JSC Flight Surgeon) while he is here. JD is a flight surgeon and the Lead of Health Care Systems, and will actually be using and implementing these sensors in the field. JD and I both got hooked up with several sensors on our chests and sides and one infrared sensor on our index finger. Affixed to our bodies are physiological sensors for ECG, pulse oxymetry, temperature, blood pressure and/or respiration. The sensor data will be acquired by a small, battery powered monitoring unit called a CPOD and later uploaded via a wireless (BlueTooth) or serial, RS232 connection to a personal computer. Once we are up and running, we get disconnected from the laptop computers and fitted with HP Pocket PC's so that we can be mobile and carry out our experiments. The overall study will involve 10 subjects. Each subject (including us) is asked to sit, stand, and walk for short periods of time as part of normal activity, for less than 8 hours. We went on a hike around Resolute and part way up the rocky slope to get our heart rates up. As we're hiking, Sekou and JD discover there is running water beneath the rocks. We can hear it but can't see it. We see later that it pours out in little streams at the bottom of the slope. Eric discovers a fossil and I find a heart shaped rock. It's not a great geological find, but it'll make a good gift to my other half back on Earth. We slept through the night fitted with the sensors. This system also interprets our body position and displays a graphical image to represent our position at any given time. I am curious to find out if I toss and turn in my sleep. |