Elaine Walker's Personal Journal - HMP 2004 Education and Public Outreach
July 26, 2004
The core module of the new NASA HMP base camp configuration (the HMP X-1 Station) is well underway. Cliff Leight (Project Photographer/Carpenter), John Schutt (HMP Base Camp Manager) and Camille Desportes de la Fosse (geophysicist at the Institute of Science and Technology, University of Paris) attached the roof felting today, constructed the ramp leading up to the double doors, and installed the first couple of circular windows. I got to add a few staples myself, attaching the roof felting around the edges. Thankfully I don't have a fear of heights.
This afternoon, Sekou Crawford (Stanford University/NASA Ames, Lead Test Engineer for Astrobionics) and JD Polk, MD (NASA JSC, Flight Surgeon, Lead for Health Care Systems) spent some time preparing for an online link to multiple NASA centers for the Autonomous Medical Care Initiative. Sekou and JD prepared the Lifeguard System and a voice link while I helped to reattach a new set of electrodes to Vicky Glass (HMP Paramedic/firefighter, Atlanta Fire Dept). Once the online session began, Vicky's vital signs were able to be seen graphically in almost real time at each location, and Sekou and JD communicated with the participants via a voice link. This is the first time this has been done with the Lifeguard System, and it was very successful.
The much anticipated new Hamilton Sundstrand concept spacesuit for advanced planetary exploration (Moon/Mars) got unpacked today. One of the goals this season is to interface the Lifeguard System with the Hamilton Sundstrand spacesuit computer. There is no room for the CPOD (a battery-powered monitoring unit) to be strapped around the astronaut's abdomen while in the suit, so the task was to upload the Lifeguard Base station software into the spacesuit computer. It took a few hours, but it was successful. It took some work after that to have the vital signs be read in the heads up display, but that was also accomplished.