Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) – Page 3 – AnaBlogs: Blogs from Analog Missions

Desert RATS Mission Day 2: Crew Blog

By Chris Looper
Chris Looper is Chief Engineer of the EVA Branch of the Astronaut Office, and is splitting time as a test subject and as Traverse Director of Desert RATS 2010.

Mission Day 2 is drawing to a close and I have to say it has been better than a typical day in the office. I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in the Desert RATS testing. I have spent my career as an engineer at NASA testing and working operations of Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) hardware for the International Space Station. To be able to simulate moon and Mars surface operations, including EVA, for future NASA exploration is an ideal way for me to spend my work time. It is also inspiring to be working with a large group of people who are so dedicated to excel.

The ATHLETE rover, viewed from a distance, at the close of mission day 2.

I am writing this at 8 p.m. and I can see one of the rover team members is remotely updating files on the rover’s computer (one of several). Jim and I accomplished all the objectives for the day with a total EVA time of 1 hour and 20 minutes, and approximately 10 km driven. We are at the planned camp site for night two, and it’s a relief to be able to be following the plan that took so much effort for people to produce. We all understand that hardware failures can occur or bad weather can set in, which would force us to deviate from the designed mission plan.

Barring such events, however, we are driven to succeed. It is also important for us as test subjects to reflect on the main test objectives and try to capture while we are here immersed in it the key things we are learning. This is challenging because it is a test of integrated systems with typically more than one variable in play at once. Differentiating cause and effect from different variables can be hard.

Desert RATS Mission Day 2: Crew Blog

By Dr. Jim Rice
Dr. Jim Rice is an Astrogeologist working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the geology crew member on rover A during week 1 of Desert RATS.

Wednesday, September 01

Today was another fantastic day onboard Rover Alpha! We conducted two really exciting Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs) where we observed, documented and sampled a new type of lava flow, different from the ones we saw on day one. On our second EVA, we sampled yet another type of lava flow, which also appeared to be the youngest lava flow seen thus far. The highlight was climbing a small volcano called a scoria cone — we were able to look down into the vent. We collected samples from the volcano’s rim. The view was spectacular and we were able to survey the surrounding landscape, a very beautiful and serene locale. All our samples and observations will allow us to piece together the geologic history of this region much like we will do when we explore future destinations, be it the moon, Mars or asteroids.

Looking down on the rover and chase teams from atop the small volcano.

If I had to describe our daily life in Rover Alpha, I would say it’s very much like camping out, although there are some big differences. We have power, computers, both a hot and cold water dispenser, air conditioning, exercise equipment and an indoor bathroom.

We spend all our time in the rover, except when we do EVAs — the rover is a very comfortable home on 12 wheels. Being part of this field test is a very distinct honor for me! It is pretty awesome to be part of the team testing this prototype rover. I am loving every second and am very proud to be part of this hardworking and talented team. This is a remarkable experience that I will never forget. I certainly hope to see this marvelous and capable rover exploring some extraterrestrial real estate in the not too distant future.

Desert RATS Mission Day 1: Crew Blog

By Chris Looper
Chris Looper is Chief Engineer of the EVA Branch of the Astronaut Office, and is splitting time as a test subject and as Traverse Director of Desert RATS 2010.

We got an early start trying to get things situated in the rover before time to depart on the first traverse. The beginning of the test day in a field test is always very hectic. It is a large operation with many things going on that has to converge at 0800 (or as close as possible) so wheels can roll. We started 30 minutes late, but made that time up with a shorter lunch.

From our perspective inside rover A, all objectives for the day were accomplished. We performed four spacewalks at the four prescribed locations and ended the day at the planned camp one at the desired time. Total Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) time was 2.47 hours and total distance traveled by our rover was 7.8 km. We are now 5.7 km from base camp.

We kept track of Stan and Jake’s progress in rover B, mostly by checking with Mission Control. During parts of the day, we could see rover B and at times were close enough to talk. They also had an excellent day with all objectives met. Both rovers experienced some malfunctions which the rover chase team repaired quickly and efficiently. It is a big relief to know we have a good start.

Jim and I spent a couple of hours this evening getting things arranged in the rover and finding out the details of what was packed in each of the bags. We didn’t have time to do a very good job of this first thing this morning. The videos below are of the inside of the rover after we did some unpacking and while we crossed Highway 89 with State Trooper assistance.

Chris Looper narrates the trek from rover A, and offers a brief comment about crossing the highway before reaching their destination:

Chris describes arrival at the site – you’ll see the Tri-ATHLETE rover moving across the terrain:

Chris gives a brief tour of the inside of the rover at the end of Mission Day 1, showing the food, water supply and other items:

Desert RATS 2010: Training, Practice and Teamwork

by Dean Eppler
Dean Eppler is the D-RATS Science Lead.

Total chaos – like what you’ve probably experienced if you’ve ever put on a school play, or gone on a long, complicated family vacation. That’s what it’s like to start up a complicated test like Desert RATS. My name is Dean Eppler, and I’m a geologist with NASA, one of the folks responsible for organizing and helping run Desert RATS. My job is something called “science operations development” – simply put, it’s using my background as a field geologist and space suit test subject to figure out how we’re going to do science with crewmembers on planetary bodies throughout the Solar System.

Field geology, when we do it on the Earth, is a relatively simple operation – you go out into the field, either by yourself or with a field assistant, walk the ground and find the bedrock, and enter descriptions of the rocks on your maps and in your field notebooks. In space, the environment and the ways we cope with space add complexity that takes a lot of testing and practice on Earth before we’re ready to try it in space. For instance, when the Space Shuttle or International Space Station crews go into space, it’s only after literally years of planning, practicing, making mistakes and re-practicing. This process of training is critical, because nobody does a complex thing like get ready for spaceflight right the first time.

Here at Desert RATS, we’re doing the same thing – bringing new hardware into the field, putting crewmembers in the vehicles, and doing a dress rehearsal of our plans to see what doesn’t work. Monday was the first day of our operation – something we call a “dry run,” which is like a dress rehearsal – and like all dress rehearsals, we find out what things worked (and lots did) and what things did not work as we’d hoped. This included getting a group of scientists together who do geology on the Earth, and working with the engineers and crew members to fix problems, find out what doesn’t work, and learn to improvise to make the mission a success.

The one critical element of a successful test is teamwork – a complex mission is based on many people’s talents. Here in the field, we have engineers, scientists, educators, astronauts and medics, and we all need to work together to make the test work. The other critical element is patience – it takes many years of testing, training, reworking and retesting before a mission is ready to go into space, and the whole team has to be patient when things go wrong, to work each problem to get operations rolling again. Twelve days from now, our test will be over, and we will have learned many things to make next year’s test successful – including how we can all work together to solve problems and achieve a common goal.

Desert RATS Dry-Run: Crew Blog

By Chris Looper
Chris Looper is the Chief Engineer of the EVA Branch of the Astronaut Office, and is splitting time as a test subject and Traverse Director of 2010 Desert RATS .

Today we had a practice day, referred to as a dry-run, where we were able to operate the rovers and perform a practice spacewalk. It was a very hectic day but a very good, full day of learning new things about how to make the rover work and practicing the geology sampling procedure we are to employ.

As is typical for the first day with all the various systems working together, communications through the radio network was challenging. Everything should smooth out within the next few days as all the system experts have sufficient opportunities to understand what it will take to get things working together. I gained a better appreciation today for the responsibilities of a test subject in this environment. In addition to understanding and trying to follow the plan, I will have to make a concentrated effort to ensure we (the rover A test subjects) also provide all the subjective data expected. There is a lot of it, throughout the day, before and after all the events.

Tomorrow we begin our seven-day mission portion of the overall 14 day mission. I learned some points today which should help me to take care of rover A so that it will be in good shape for days 8-14. I know most of the people participating in the test, since I have worked Desert RATS for the last few years. It makes it a comfortable environment knowing they are good people who take pride in what they do. I am also looking forward to working with Jim Rice in rover A for the next week. I have got to visit with Jim a few times over the last few years but never for any length of time. Three video links touring base camp are below. High definition video is very jiggly when you’re walking (sorry).

Desert RATS Team Ready for Traverse, Day 1

by Matt Leonard
Matt Leonard is this year’s Mission Management Team (MMT) Lead for D-RATS 2010.

Today is the first day of the desert traverse! What a great amount of effort the team has put in to getting us ready and going.

The dedication and hard work of this team shows through in everything they do. It has been a very proud time for me personally to see the Lunar Surface Systems team pitching in everywhere – working on fences, cooking lunches, preparing Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) sample bags, distributing gear and managing contact lists. It’s not the neat space stuff you might expect, but we can see where it is benefitting the whole team.

It was interesting Sunday night to see the science team all together. They’re a large group of very talented scientists, and it will be good to get their input on how the rovers work as science platforms. Watching all of the engineering teams bring their pieces together has been very interesting. The value and excellence of all of these teams is evident as their equipment comes to life.

The Desert RATS Mission Management Team meets every day to discuss the day’s activities.

NASA Desert RATS Intern Blog : Week #1 of DRATS 2010

By Kevin Buckley and Courtney Gras, Moon Work interns

The first week of work at Desert RATS started the day after our arrival in Flagstaff on Monday, August 23. The goal of the first week was to set up the base camp and prepare for the testing that will be going on Aug. 31 – Sept 13.

As interns, our main responsibility was to help out where needed. This week was special because our work was very hands-on. We helped move equipment and set up the buildings that the scientists and engineers will work in every day. We also checked out the equipment that the scientists will be using during the tests, practiced setting up the tent that will be used to cover the rover when it rains, moved fences that the rovers will need to go through, and organized the tools and bags the crew will use during their tests.

Courtney is helping set up the power cords for the air conditioning in the science connex.

Watching the whole camp come together from a few pieces was exciting, and seeing the scientists and engineers practicing together was a lot of fun.

We are getting ready for the next two weeks when the real testing will start, and things have been going well so far, so we should be ready for mission day one on Aug. 31. As interns we are looking forward to getting to participate in the testing and helping out when we are needed, and we’ll have a lot of fun doing it!

Habitat Demonstration Unit

by Tracy Gill
Tracy Gill is on the management team of the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) project, which brings together a multi-center team of NASA architects, scientists and engineers, working together to develop sustainable living quarters, workspaces, and laboratories for next-generation space missions.

This is an exciting time for the Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) team as we are deploying our first hardware to the field for the Desert RaTS 2010 campaign. We have built a version of a Habitat called the Pressurized Excursion Module (PEM). In exploration architecture studies, the PEM would actually ride across a planetary surface atop the ATHLETE rover in concert with Space Exploration Vehicle rovers. For Desert RATS, it would be extremely difficult and costly to come up with something to transport an element as large as the HDU-PEM across the desert in Earth’s gravity, so we decided to have the rovers rendezvous with the PEM at two different locations in this year’s activities.

We are pretty proud of the HDU-PEM contribution to Desert RATS. We built a coalition of the willing from 7 different NASA centers where we leveraged existing technology development projects and center innovation funding and strategically put them together to build an integrated technology and architecture test bed. We spent most of the past year in JSC’s Building 220 taking PowerPoint concepts and turning them into real hardware. Of course it got crazy at the end of the flow, as we rushed to put things together in “final” configuration before we conducted dry run exercises at the JSC rock yard, and as it turns out, we’ll actually see the “final” configuration for this year’s version when we get to Arizona and install a few last minute items like additional lighting and work platforms.

Habitat Demonstration Unit – Pressurized Excursion Module, Airlock, and Space Exploration Vehicle Rover during JSC Rock Yard Operations Aug 9, 2010

We actually got the HDU-PEM and its airlock packed and loaded for transportation on August 16 and on the way to Arizona August 17. It was anticipated that we needed about a week to transport a super-sized load like the HDU because of the restrictions in place for an object of this width and height. We’ll be unloading and starting our setup on August 25, and we’re ready to roll to support Desert RATS 2010.

Loading the Habitat Demonstration Unit at the JSC Rock Yard on Aug 16, 2010 for transportation.

The Habitat Demonstration Unit and Airlock departing JSC on August 17, 2010 for Desert RATS in Arizona.

Virtual Space Explorers: D-RATS Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) in Second Life

Caledonia Heron is suited up for a Desert RATS 3-D mission in Second Life.
+ Download a guide to getting started and locating Desert RATS in Second Life (PDF)

By Caledonia Heron
July 30, 2010

(NASA Virtual News) – The view across the desert looks rocky and desolate when I gauge the track for the SEV rover. I put it in drive. The base camp tents and rovers recede as I roll out onto the terrain. I’m on my way… virtually.

Virtually? Yes, I’m suited up for a D-RATS mission in Second Life, a 3D immersive world where you can make and do most anything. The D-RATS virtual sim puts you right in the middle of role-playing NASA’s research and testing of lunar and Martian terrain vehicles. Login and you can check out the interactive portions of the SEV and then drive it around the desert. You are now a virtual space explorer!

A view of the NASA eEducation Island in Second Life, showing the Space Exploration Vehicle.

The rover yard and D-RATS are part of NASA eEducation island which is home to analog missions, spacecraft and satellites. The island hosts D-RATS and NEEMO plus an ANSMET research station, microbial mats, and black smokers. There are satellites, rockets and planes. You can ride a raindrop through the water cycle or hunt for meteorites! Teleport skyward to view and learn about the Hubble or ISS. At NASA eEd island you can learn about NASA’s missions and research while immersed in the 3D world around you.

Many people participate in NASA’s events and missions in this 3D distance learning environment. Co-located in space and time, there is a real sense of being with each other and collaborating as you work on tasks. Join us for an event or visit the summer fair to see virtual NASA at work! NASA education interests are welcome to contact the LT Technical Office to have their projects represented. The NASA eEducation island is sponsored by NASA Learning Technologies, an education technology incubator located in Second Life.

Starting Moon Work Internship Week #1 and #2

Kevin Buckley is an intern supporting Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) and NASA JSC.

DRATS Internship Week 1:

This week I started out by meeting my mentors, Matt and Jason, and I am working in the Lunar Surface Systems group, specifically making preparations for the Mission Management Team (MMT), of which I will be a part during the traverse in Arizona. Early in the week I spent time meeting people in the office and getting acquainted with the work, but mostly I worked on creating a template for our MMT meetings, which would take place for the first time next week during the Dry Runs.

DRATS Internship Week 2:

This week we were pretty busy, the dry-runs were being conducted all week, so we came in early and stayed late a couple of the days. Courtney arrived on Monday and she helped me finish up the template for the MMT meetings, which we led on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, we didn’t have an MMT meeting, so we helped out the rover crew by riding along inside as they did their traverses and taking notes and pictures, which was a lot of fun. It was really cool to ride inside of the rover and see how the crew functions. Also Courtney and I were interviewed by the film crew they had for outreach to seventh-graders which was pretty cool too. So far on the whole the internship is a lot of fun, and I’m learning the process NASA uses, and the similarities to my capstone project that got me here.

Interview about internship in Building 9 High Bay

DRATS Internship Week 3:

This week was the week between dry-run weeks, so our tasks focused mainly on preparing for the next set of dry runs and further our preparation for the field. Jason, who has been primarily our direct point of contact, is at NASA Ames this week on another project. Courtney and I have been managing our work and organizing our tasks ourselves, which has lent to the feel of a real work setting. Along with continuing our work from the previous weeks, we also got to help out with some other tasks, such as to help install battery packs and shore up some wiring on one of the shirtsleeve EVA backpacks. Our MMT meeting template has been mostly finalized, we’ve spent considerable time putting together a master contact list, and we have been receiving quotes for things we’ll need in the field, such as cranes, forklifts, etc. Overall it’s been a productive week, and we’re learning the process and way things work more each day.

Courtney and I were working on this Shirtsleeve Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) Backpack.