Sol 10
Summary Title: The Spectacular Candor Chasma exploration
Author’s name: Aline Decadi, XO
Mission Status: nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Today took place 2 EVAs:
– EVA-15 with the following 4 crew members: James Burk (Commander) (EVA Lead), Aline Decadi (XO), Julien Villa-Massone (Crew Engineer), Audrey Derobertmasure (HSO).
– EVA-16 with the following 4 crew members: Cecile Renaud (EVA Leader), Julian Villa-Massone (Crew Engineer), Erin Kennedy (Crew Roboticist), Kris Davidson (Journalist) (Not In Sim – Not Wearing Suit).
EVA-15 successfully conducted exploration of Candor Chasma + Drone Flights to Capture Outreach Footage, with the rovers Spirit and Perseverance. ADAPA drone has been flying nominally but was still not able to record footage during the flight.
EVA-16 had the following purpose:
1) Human-Robot Interaction experiment with Atmosphinder robot to activate functions based on coloured card sequences as detected with embedded computer vision
2) Autonomous sensor-based function activation with the anemometer and sails
3) Additional sail testing
The half-sized Atmosphinder robot with electronics and sails was tested today. The objectives of the test were surrounding human-robot interaction while fully suited in astronaut gear. This comprised of two smaller tests: 1) autonomous function activation based on anemometer wind speed and 2) computer vision with coloured card sequences. The new code for these tests was integrated with the existing environmental sensor data logging code.
The result from the first wind test proved that Atmosphinder was able to change its functions from the wind sensor, as shown by the LEDs. In combination with controlling the sail trim servos, this is an indicator that in the future, controlling the direction of the robot based on the current winds will be possible!
The computer vision colour card sequence test was not guaranteed to work as designed given the lighting conditions differed from when it was initially trained. The pink and green colour combination sequence was tested on both tests, and the camera was able to detect them.
The EVA was aborted early due to inclimate weather conditions approaching. A debrief was conducted with the crew. It was helpful to hear their point of view in order to form a balanced perspective of the activity given Atmosphinder’s technical results from today’s testing. Extracting learning lessons from the entire crew’s experience was invaluable and am endlessly grateful for their continuing support!
A last test of ADAPA drone has also been conducted during EVA-16 ; the results were identical to the drone flight from this morning: it was still not able to record during the flight.
During EVA-16, the Mission Support updated the crew on a potential storm coming and the EVA has been aborted to prevent from any Safety issues.
The crew spent the rest of the afternoon debriefing, make the reports, have dinner together and prepare the next day’s experiments and EVAs.
Look Ahead Plan: we will conduct 2 EVAs tomorrow: EVA-17 in the morning for collecting samples of soil for Crew Biologist; EVA-18 in the afternoon for the last engineering testing of Atmosphinder at Sea of Shells, according to mission request approval.
Anomalies in work: None.
Weather: Pleasant and sunny. Very windy in the afternoon.
Crew Physical Status: Nominal.
EVA: EVA-15 at Candor Chasma; EVA-16 in front of the Hab.
Reports to be filed: HSO Report, EVA Report, Operations Report, Journalist Report, Pictures of the day, GreenHab Report.
Support Requested: None.
text