Astronomy (Jenny): Since the weather was clear last night, we went out to the observatory to align the telescope and take a few practice dark frames of RS CVn with the CCD. However, the dome kept getting stuck in its tracks, so we were unable to even align the telescope given our limited field of view. We attempted to resolve the dome issues this afternoon by taking the track covers off and inspecting the inside, but all we found were some harmless bits of dirt. Next we disengaged the motor to see if it was causing the problem, and we were then able to move the dome smoothly by hand. However, we noticed that the track is warped in some places, and we suspect that this is what was causing the dome to get stuck. We will continue operating the dome with the motor disengaged until after our eclipse observations tomorrow night.

After dark we will make another attempt at aligning the telescope and taking practice dark frames. Tomorrow morning (pre-dawn) we will take more practice flat fields, this time with the telescope focused properly and the CCD better aligned. This should reduce the vignetting we were getting last night.

Communication and Navigation (Jan): On today's EVA we successfully tested the basic elements of our radiocommunications system: amateur radio voice transmission with and without a cross-band repeater, and APRS position reporting. All three modes worked well. We demonstrated greatly extended coverage (as compared to the standard-issue Family Radio System transceivers integrated into the EVA suit helmets) even with simplex voice radio, and going through our crossband repeater extended that even further - almost all the way to waypoint "Family Crest". Having assured communications between EVA and Hab throughout the MDRS Area of Operations is an important safety feature, and we can thus highly recommend using amateur radio equipment (of course operated by licensed operators) for long range EVA-Hab communications, while keeping the robust and license-free FRS units for intra-EVA comms.

One Lesson Learned was that the headsets that came with the Kenwood handheld transceivers are not really suited for EVAs since the PTT switch is on the microphone, which of course needs to be inside the helmet collar, where gloved hands can't reach it. We will find a workaround for this rotation and procure better ones for next year.

Human Factors (Jan): The participants keep taking MASCOT and MOODY tests. PHADES is scheduled for the end of the rotation.

Radiation (Jason): After the unsuccessful data collection yesterday, the EVA today returned valid data so that a radiation map of Lowell Highway, the road heading north from MDRS, can be created. It is still unclear what the problem was yesterday, though analysis of the GPS data today revealed that the data was output according to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT); therefore there is an offset of 7 hours between the time stamps of the Gamma Scout and those of the GPS.

The data has been organized and sent to Mission Support for post-processing so that a three dimensional plot of radiation counts (and doses) can be made. Additionally, since the GPS also recorded elevation it should be possible with Matlab to plot a 3d map of the EVA ( (x,y) being the UTM coordinates and z being the elevation) with color coded points of radiation counts (and doses) superimposed on this 3d map. Though the original plan for post-processing did not lay out the necessary steps for such a map, the data has been sent back to Mission Support with the hope that they will be able to assist.

The plan now is to collect data on the in-Situ resource shielding abilities. The strategy that led to successful collection of data today was clearing the track log of the GPS just before the EVA began and doing the same for the memory of the Gamma Scout. This had not been done so close to the time of EVA departure yesterday and it is suspected that this was the reason for the inaccurate data.

Jenny Rome
MDRS Crew 47