Brief Summary: There was one EVA conducted today.

EVA-8:

Context: Emergency Radiation Operational Procedures
Duration: 12:36 - 14:09 (refer to detailed EVA timeline below)
Weather: Cloudy and cold
Maximum distance traveled from Hab: Hab surrounding area (~500m)

Participants: EVA Team-8 (Elizabeth Wolfe, Chip Shepherd, Pieter Jan Van Asbroeck, Irene Schneider Puente; Alex Diaz and Marcus Medley - out of sim support); HABComm (Alex Diaz); Suit Techs (Alex Diaz).

Equipment: Spacesuits and supporting equipment (i.e. ATV, Modified Emergency Stretcher), video camera, digital camera, radios, notepad/pen.

Route: EVA Team-8 simulated a solar storm in the vicinity of the Hab (~500 m away). EVA crewmembers were unconscious.

Objectives - Work Done: This was the first test of emergency radiation operational protocols. The objective was to assess the minimum time required to proceed to a rescue operation and to bring back 2 radiation victims which had been hit by a solar storm strong enough to induce acute radiation syndrome while unprotected on an EVA. Major tasks included:

• Testing how fast a rescue team of two people can come out and assess victims after alarm sounds inside the Hab; including suiting up, depress time and preparing a stretcher and ATV to proceed with rescue operations.
• Total time of EVA is reported from start of EVA-8 to completion of rescue operation of both victims.

Lessons Learned:

• Speed is crucial for a rescue operation especially for a radiation rescue where victims have suffered acute syndrome. Time is of the essence specially due to the fact that radiation doses are cumulative thus the more time elapsed unprotected under a solar storm the lesser the chances of survival.
• Getting the victims to proper medical intervention or care is crucial in order to allow for the chance of survival. Otherwise an event such as this could very easily become mission critical due to the death of all crew members involved in an EVA.
• The minimum number of crew members are two in order to preserve the buddy system, and in this case to minimize operational impact on mission. In order to maximize operational speed it is critical that crew members left inside the Hab while EVA is on-going have been previously selected to carry out such an emergency rescue operation. For this we had left their suits and all equipment ready in case of an emergency. This drastically shortened the time of the rescue operation.
• It is critical that once victims are reached their status is assessed in order to proceed with decision making and utilization of rescue resources and tools.

EVA Timeline:

12:27 - PLSSs turned on
12:31 - Airlock depress begins
12:36 - Airlock exit (EVA Start)
12:50 - Red Code Radiation Alert (Hab detector system)
13:10 - EVA crewmember Elizabeth collapses.
13:17 - EVA Rescue Team enters Airlock for depress
13:22 - EVA Rescue Team exits Airlock (Rescue EVA begins)
13:23 - EVA crew member Irene collapses.
13:24 - ATV Departs Hab
13:26 - ATV reaches Irene
13:27 - ATV reaches Elizabeth
13:37 - ATV failure
13:40 - 13:45 - ATV repair attempt
13:45 - 13:49 - Elizabeth gets placed on stretcher
13:52 - Emergency walkback transport begins
13:55 - Emergency walkback transport aborted
14:00 - Elizabeth placed on ATV
14:02 - EVA Rescue Team gets to Irene
14:06 - Irene secured on emergency stretcher.
14:07 - Emergency walk back transport begins
14:09 - Hab arrival