Category: EVA Report

Crew 212 EVA Report 17-May-2019

EVA #13

Author: Hector Palomeque

Purpose of EVA: Search&Rescue drone mission scenario attempt 2

Start time: 07:30 (postponed to 08:30 due to weather)

End time: 09:30 (delayed to 09:45 due to miscommunications)

Narrative: This EVA was performed in order to test the Tarot drone in Search and Recovery missions and the very first test in a Martian-like environment of the Observation Rover. The EVA was postponed due to the strong winds but after the EVA crew had the permission of the Director (Dr. Shannon Rupert) to proceed the EVA started with a delay of 1 hour (08:30).

Two of the EVA crew members prepared the Tarot drone for take-off, however, this mission had to be suspended again due to a mechanical/electronic error that does not allow its correct drone take-off and makes it fall.

The other two EVA crew members made the test of the Observation Rover on land. It was a successful test. All the mechanics of the Rover seems to work properly. It is able to move even over tiny rocks and to climb hills.

Unfortunately, the crew had a misunderstanding with the end time. Also, because of the miscommunications with the Hab, the crew was not able to communicate that they were going back 15 minutes late.

Nevertheless, the situation was treated at the debriefing after EVA in order to gain knowledge and experience for everyone, agreeing at the end with the determination of the EVA crewmember responsible for communications and the correct protocol for doing it.

Destination: Hab – Marble Ritual

Coordinates (use UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

Participants: Zoe, Vittorio, Paolo, and Hector

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103

Mode of travel: Driving – Curiosity and Spirit

Crew 212 EVA Report 17-MAY-2019

EVA #012

Author: Zoe Townsend

Purpose of EVA: Collection of sand for outreach purposes and physiological experiments to see how the suits performed in exercise.

Start time: 09.30

End time: 11.00

Narrative:

Today’s EVA was aimed at assisting with the project on the physiological effects of the suits. The EVA was to walk up to the Mid Ridge Planitia viewpoint to see how much oxygen was in the blood before and after the EVA, therefore assessing the suitability of the suits.

The experiment was deemed a partial failure where there were difficulties in isolating the suit to the outside elements. The windy weather also affected the testing where it wasn’t a true test of the suits fans ability.

Summary of the debrief, after the EVA:

• · Communication was the best over all the sim
• · Issue with clarification of time change (read earlier email from commander)

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4251250, Eastern 516000

EVA Participants: Paola, Mariona (Medic), Camilo and Zoe (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Sagan Street 1103

Mode of travel: (walking or driving)? Walking.

Crew 212 EVA Report 15-MAY-2019

EVA #11

Author: Paolo Guardabasso

Purpose of EVA: Drone Search&Recovery scenario test

Start time: 8:30 AM

End time: 10:15 AM

Narrative: this EVA was intended to test the utility of drones in Search and Recovery missions. A dummy airplane was placed at Marble Ritual to simulate a crash landing site, and an automatic mission was planned for the Tarot drone, equipped with a camera connected to a First Person View visor in real time. The two crew members placed the ground station a few meters East of the Hab and prepared the drone for take-off. Unfortunately, the vehicle was unable to take-off and the test was cancelled, and the dummy plane recovered. These results, although unsuccessful, proved fundamental to prepare for the next EVA (planned for Friday, Sol 12), where a similar scenario will be proposed.

Destination: Hab – Marble Ritual

Coordinates (use UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

Participants: Vittorio Netti (Medic), Paolo Guardabasso (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103

Mode of travel: Walking

Crew 212 Rover test EVA report 14-MAY-2019

Engineering EVA

Author: Paolo Guardabasso
Purpose of EVA: Drive test of Opportunity, Spirit, Curiosity.
Start time: 10:45
End time: 12:15

Narrative: this EVA was performed to test the three rovers in similar conditions, to verify their status; it was chosen to perform the EVA in the late morning so that temperatures simulated an EVA worst case scenario. Three crew members (the Crew Engineer Paolo, the Spacesuit engineer Camilo and the Executive Officer Vittorio) drove on Cow Dung Road 0110 about one mile north from the Hab (arriving close to the crossing with Galileo Road) and then performed a U-turn and drove south. Around 0.3 miles after, Opportunity turned off becausethe battery overheated. The driver of Opportunity mounted on Curiosity and the EVA crew proceeded south and passed the Hab, driving one more mile south. Then, they performed a U-turn and drove back to the Hab. Battery levels were verified after 1 mile, at the failure point of Opportunity (1.3 miles), after 2 and 3 miles and at the Hab. A detailed GPS map is attached.

Results:

· Opportunity: the rover stopped because of the battery overheated after about 1.3 miles. It was recovered in the late afternoon (6:30pm)

· Spirit: the rover battery dropped to 65% after only 4 miles (declared autonomy is 50 miles).

· Curiosity: the rover performed nominally throughout the mission.

A graph of the battery levels for each rover over the distance is attached.

Recommendations

· Opportunity should not be used, or only be used during early morning or late day EVAs, when the temperature is low, and never without a backup rover.

· Spirit can only be used on a maximum range of 3 miles, otherwise the battery might not be enough for the way back.

· For all the rovers, a check of radiator water levels should be run as soon as possible, to verify that the tank is filled as per the manual.

Crew 212 EVA Report 14-MAY-2019

EVA #010

Author: Zoe Townsend

Purpose of EVA: Collection of sand samples for contaminants.

Start time: 16:30

End time: 18:45 (late and extended to rescue Opportunity)

Narrative:

Today’s EVA was to collect sand for containments. The results of which will be postposed back on Earth. Prior to the EVA, the team were contacted by Shannon to explain that part of the road was unpassable, the decision was taken to walk from Zubin’s head. Due to the heat the EVA was reduced from 2 hours to one and a half starting half an hour later.

During the EVA, the crew required a lot of equipment to prevent contamination of the samples. Therefore, the decision was taken to first scout the area and then once the location was decided to conduct the sample extraction. An unfortunate run in with non sim personal delayed the start of the extracted where there was persistence to take photos of the crew.

Throughout sand extraction communication came through from the Hab and whist the crew tried to communicate apparently the Hab could not hear the responses. The crew returned to the rover and headed back to base. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the delayed start, non sim personal and walking instead of driving the sim overran and without stable communication the Hab decided that emergency measures where required. Shannon headed toward the sight and caught up with the team returning to the Hab. After establishing the issues with the radios it was decided the crew was healthy and the situation was stable. It was then decided that the crew would collect Opportunity from it position after the Engineering EVA.

–

The debrief was extensive and these are the results:

• · That upon arriving at any sight, confirmation must be made that the crew are in radio contact.
• · Timings must be adhered too
• · That all personal must be present prior to EVA to help with ensuring the embarking crew have all equipment required
• · A check list of equipment will be adhered to or else the EVA will be stopped
• · A briefing before all EVAs is compulsory.

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4248210, Eastern 518718 and also Sector12S Northern 4246840, Eastern 518268

EVA Participants: Hector (Medic), and Zoe (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1101

Mode of travel: (walking or driving)? Rover Curiosity.

Kind Regards,

Zoe

Crew 212 EVA Report 13-MAY-2019

EVA #09

Author: Vittorio Netti

Purpose of EVA:
Primary objective
Testing the first BVLOS mission of the "Palantir" fixes wing drone (Success)
Testing the flight attitude shifting capabilities of the "X-5" fixes wing VTOL drone (Partial Failure)

Measuring the Oxygen fluxus from the SpaceSuit under extensive stress (Partial Success)
Measuring the Oxygen level in blood after extensive stress in Spacesuit (Success)
Secondary objectives
Collecting aerial photos of the martian surface (Success)
Testing the assisting landing capabilities of the drone (Success)
Testing the ground control station during the auto mission mode (Success)

Start time: 16:00 AM

End time: 18:33 AM

Narrative:

The purpose of this EVA was to

The equipment was composed by:
– Palantir drone
– Ex Case 1 (pressurized)
– Ground Station Tripod

Since two experiments were foreseen for this EVA, two rovers were needed. Spirit presented anomalous battery consumption rates in the past days, so we decided to leave it at the Hab. Curiosity has always functioned nominally. Although Opportunity had overheating problems on last Sunday (Sol 0), it has been performing nominally in the past EVAs; while keeping the driving speed low, we decided to take it, as the EVA destination didn’t require a long drive (approx 15 minutes each way).

Opportunity departed from the hab with 100% of battery.
Curiosity departed from the hab with 100% of battery.

We departed from the Hab around 4:15 PM and drove towards north to free the mouse (captured last night) before Cowboy’s Corner; the speed was maintained low to avoid overheating problems with Oppi. After that, both rovers performed a U-turn and drove in the direction of URC North Site. At around 50 meters from the final objective, Opportunity stopped, and the battery overheating warning was on. Battery level at that point was 99%. We tried to start the engine many times, but the alarm was always on and didn’t let the engine start.

Since that we were on the experiment site, we decided to leave the rovers and start the experiment procedures, hoping that the Opportunity batteries can cool down during that time.

Together with Paolo we proceeded to assembly the drones and the GCS. At the same time, Zoe and Camilo proceeded to set a running track in order to perform their experiment under stress.

The "Palantir" drone has been hand-launched by Paolo and suddenly the control has been taken by the program, that started the automatic photosurvey of the area. During the mission "Palantir took more than 150photos, mapping more than 45 Hectare of terrain in 28 minutes.

Zoe and Camillo proceeded with the experiment, running through the track for 10 minutes with their suit on, on which they previously sealed the external openings.

After the landing, the Palantir has been recovered without damages. Together with Paolo we proceeded to assembly and arming the X-5 for his test.

The X-5 take-off happened at 17.45, but after the transition to the Plane mode the aerodynamic surfaces resulted not to be controllable enough from the software. We tried to perform a controlled soft landing without success. The plane suffered an impact to the ground that destroyed both the motor support plates.

At the end of experiments, since Opportunity was still off, we received authorization from the Director to use one rover to carry all four EVA crew members back to the Hab, leaving all the equipment in the overheated rover to have place for all the crewmember. The crashed drone has been left on his impact point in order to perform further analysis on the impact dynamic

Opportunity was retrieved later by the Director and an out-of-sim crew member. During the recovery, the X-5 has been photographed and then stored in the Opportunity trunk together with the rest of the equipment They were able to start the rover and drive to the Hab, where the rover stopped once again, luckily right in front of the Hab.

Destination: URC North Site

Coordinates: (UTM NAD27 CONUS): 519012.00 E, 4251740.00 N, Zone 12S

EVA Participants: Vittorio Netti (Commander), Camillo Zorro (Medic), Zoe Townsend, Paolo Guardabasso

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110

Mode of travel: driving

Crew 212 EVA Report 12-MAY-2019

EVA #08

Author: Marlen Castillo Vilcahuaman

Purpose of EVA: Locating the martian flora around the Hab.

Start time: 09:12

End time: 09:59

Narrative:

After walking around the Hab many times, it was reported that some interesting flora was growing near the place. The whole purpose of the EVA was to locate this places, for planning better our longer trips in search of the martian flora. Our next EVA had to cover all this points to collect the soil samples. After the walk, we could recognize the diversity around the Hab, and now we can have a better idea for the EVA that has to follow for this project. We were happy that communication was fine between ourselves and the Hab, and no incidents ocurred during the EVA.

Destination: Around the Hab

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

EVA Participants: Marlen, Mariona, Paolo, Vittorio

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103

Mode of travel: Walking

EVA #07

Author: Vittorio Netti

Purpose of EVA:

Primary objective
Testing the automatic mission capabilities of the "Palantir" fixes wing drone (Partial Success)

Secondary objectives
Collecting aerial photos of the Martian surface (Success)
Testing the assisting landing capabilities of the drone (Success)
Testing the ground control station during the auto mission mode (Success)

Start time: 17:00 AM

End time: 18:00 AM

Narrative:

The purpose of this EVA was to perform the first automatic mission of "Palantir", our fixed-wing drone. Since the mission required just two members, we were able to bring all the mission equipment in the airlock with us. The equipment was composed by:

– Palantir drone
– Ex Case 1 (pressurized)
– Ground Station Tripod

Spirit departed from the hab with 100% of battery.

We drove along the Cow Dung Road 0110, direction south, on an average speed of 10mph until the marked point (Waypoint 0). Once on the place, we decided to move back on the road of 50m in order to place the ground control antenna in the closest point to the center of the operation area.

We unloaded the rover and proceeded to assemble the ground control station and the drone.

The wind raised to a speed of 8-10mph so we decided to wait some minutes before the launch, performing some aptitude test of the drone main control surfaces. After 12 minutes, around 5:32 pm, we finally decided to proceed to the launch, that has been made with the hand-launch technic. The drone has been driven at the height of 30m in manual mode, and then the auto-mode has been activated by the GCS (Ground Control Station).

The drone started its planned mission smoothly, raising to the altitude of 100m during the first seconds. The entire mission has been followed in real time thanks to the perfect connection between the drone telemetry module and the GCS.

Due to the time lost for the high winds, we decided to interrupt the mission at 70%, in order to return in time to the hab. I’ve taken back the direct control of the drone in order to perform a manual landing. The landing has been achieved through the use of the assisted-piloting feature, that integrates the direct control from the pilot with the flight control unit capabilities.

Once the "Palantir" has been recovered, at 15m from the take-off coordinates, the rover has been loaded again, and the crew left the place at 5:51 pm.

Spirit arrived at the hab with 78% of battery.

The analysis of the photographic material collected during the flight is still on-going, but you can already appreciate the outstanding images that are coming from the flight attached to this message.

The mission can be considered a complete success.

(The route followed by the drone during its flight is highlighted in the EVA analysis map)

Destination: North area of Kissing Camel Ridge E

Coordinates: (UTM NAD27 CONUS): 518231.00 E, 4249778.00 N, Zone 12S

EVA Participants: Vittorio Netti (Commander), Paolo Guardabasso (Medic),

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: Cow Dung Road 0110

Mode of travel: driving

Crew 212 EVA Report 10-MAY-2019

EVA #06

Author: Zoe Townsend

Purpose of EVA: First testing of drones and soils collection

Start time: 15:00

End time: 17:00

Narrative:

Today’s EVA was to run two simultaneous experiments. The first experiment was to collect sand and rocks from various points of interest around the Hab. This is combined with the soil (red clay) collected in EVA #4. This soil, sand and rock solution will be mixed with the bacteria from radioactive regions to help with plant growth.

The second experiment was the continuation of the Drone testing, The X-5 and Tarot were tested today, the Tarot was flown around the Hab at different points that were identified as points of interest in EVA #4. Cameras on board took videos of the flight until battery issues prevented further flying. Secondly, the X-5 was flown in an empty area north of the observatory, the flight was sustained but cut short after a maneuver caused an unplanned landing.

Notes from the debriefing:

· Bring water

· Ensure that all the roles are fully defined prior to the start of the EVA

· Standardize the depressurizing time of the EVA (3 mins)

· Ensuring that there is confirmation from the Hab prior to search and recover of Drone.

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS): Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167

EVA Participants: Hector, Vittorio (Medic), Paolo and Zoe (Commander)

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103

Mode of travel: (walking or driving)? Walking

Crew 212 EVA Report 10-MAY-2019

EVA #05

Author: Marlen Castillo Vilcahuaman

Purpose of EVA: Locating the Martian flora according to Paul Sokoloff’s study, to obtain their soil for the study of microbiological diversity in desert soils. We’ll take photos of the flowers, characterize and pick up their soil.

Start time: 10:30 AM
End time: 11:30 AM

Narrative:

The purpose of this EVA was to find the Martian flora registered in Sokoloff’s paper. Although we have no work in plant ecology for this mission, we thought soil samples from flowers would have an interesting diversity in microbes, which would mean more morphological diversity in the petri dish. We asked for two rovers (Spirit and Curiosity).

However, the LA Times visit altered our plans. We took Opportunity too so that they could come with us and watch our fieldwork during EVAs. Our final point was Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167. But we had problems with Spirit. Just after turning in Galileo Road 1104, one of our crew members reported that Spirit was with 70% of battery.

We were surprised by this battery usage. Hence, we decided to stop at that point (12S 518779.59 m E 4251383.04 m N) and do our recollection work, collecting soils and flowers and doing some photography of them. After 20 minutes of walking and going around the field in search of flowers, we decided to turn around and go back to the Hab.

Spirit arrived at the Hab with 58% of battery. Curiosity’s return was nicer, with its battery being higher than 60%.

We collected four soil samples, identifying them per plant.

Destination: URC North Site and continuing in the first part of the road on the east.

Coordinates (UTM NAD27 CONUS):

Looked forward to Sector12S Northern 4250933, Eastern 518167
Stayed in: 12S 518779.59 m E 4251383.04 m N

EVA Participants: Marlen (Commander), Mariona (EVA’s HSO), Camilo

Road(s) and routes per MDRS Map: 1103, Galileo Road 1104

Mode of travel: driving and walking