Space Suit Testing in Flagstaff, Ariz. - Part 3/Conclusion

by Amy Ross
October 5, 2000

Space Suit Testing in Flagstaff, Ariz. - Part 1

Space Suit Testing in Flagstaff, Ariz. - Part 2

Field Trip Log
9/8/00 -- 9:30 pm

Today was a big day! We went to SP Mountain for our first day of testing there. SP Mountain is a cinder cone that has a lava flow out of one side. We did our tests on the lava flow. SP Mountain is on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, so there was nobody out there but us, the robot people and some horned toads (I didn't see any snakes and am going to assume that there weren't any!). The view was terrific. We looked toward the north, toward the Grand Canyon. For most of the day we watched a thunderstorm travel from west to east across the sky. Fantastic!

Our first run was a power cable deployment up the side of the lava flow, around a major outcropping. Kevin was the first subject, and wore the I-Suit. It went pretty smoothly, except that the robot couldn't make it up the slope. We had to use our six-wheel ATV to pull the trailer with the cable spools.

Today was Jose's birthday, so we had birthday cake at lunchtime.

In the afternoon, Dean did an EVA geological traverse. Again, the rover couldn't get up the slope, so we carried the tools for Dean. He said that this was probably the most difficult run he's done. The poor boot fit allowed his feet to move too much and he never felt stable in the boot. When walking on a rough, unstable terrain you definitely need to at least feel stable in your boots!

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9/21/00

Well, I got a little behind on my journal entries. The remaining time at Flagstaff just flew by!

We did a second day of testing at SP Mountain. After the testing at Cinder Lake and SP Mountain we decided that little more was to be learned about I-Suit mobility and we wanted to concentrate on performing the tasks, so we decided to only test with the H-Suit at Meteor Crater.

At Meteor Crater, Dean and Kevin each did an EVA traverse with change to the drill operation. The drill was not designed to be operated by a suited crewmember and it took almost an entire suit run just to do that one activity so, Joe changed the drilling activity somewhat. Prior to the run, we drilled a hole. The crewmember then had to deploy an in-hole instrument mock-up. This involved him picking up a long (eight foot) piece of PVC tubing. He put that down the hole (six feet deep) and then slid the instrument mock-up down the tube. The instrument had a wire (for power and data) attached to it and the suited subject ran the wire from the tube to the logistics trailer. That task went well.

The subjects, although they enjoy gaining experience in working in the suit, were glad to see the last tests completed. They work hard. We asked them to walk the distance of one to one and a half football fields in length, over slopes and rocks, while wearing a 210 pound suit and backpack. They did a great job and sure got their exercise!

On Thursday, we cleaned and repacked all of our equipment for the trip home. Joe, Dean, and I also met with some folks at the USGS. We are trying to improve the rock pile at JSC and needed some information on geologic features that we want to include in our terrain, such as a hill and a channel. They gave us some maps and data to use. We spent Friday and Saturday driving from Flagstaff to El Paso, and El Paso to Houston. The drive back always seems a lot longer than the drive out.

It wasn't all work while we were in Flagstaff. I wanted to write about two neat experiences. We had the middle Sunday of our trip off. I went to the Grand Canyon (about an hour and a half drive from Flagstaff) with three guys from the robot team. We hiked the South Kaibab Trail all of the way down to the Colorado River and back up. It is 6.5 miles and 4800 feet change in elevation, each direction. I finally got a good night's sleep after that hike! It was an incredible day. It took us 9 hours -- 3.5 hours down, a half hour at the river, and 5 hours coming up. We saw some people riding up out of the Canyon on mules while were on our way down. It would have been very tempting to beg a ride on the way back up had we seen another mule train.

The other neat experience was getting to hike to the bottom of Meteor Crater. After we finished testing there, the folks at Meteor Crater offered to take us on a guided walk in the crater. After the Grand Canyon, a 600' deep crater didn't seem like a very big deal. We saw the remains of an airplane that crashed in the crater, a closed mine shaft, a steam boiler and the winch that it ran. The man who bought the land the Meteor Crater sits on thought that he could mine down into the bottom of the crater and find the meteor. He'd make money by selling off the iron rich ore of the meteor. To bad that he didn't know that most of the meteor vaporized on impact and the rest of it is scattered for miles in little bitty pieces. We even found some meteorites while we were testing. The boiler and winch was how he ferried equipment back and forth from the mine. Very interesting.

Today, I'm still getting caught up from being gone for two weeks. Joe has asked me to write up some ideas on how we'd like to improve the boots. In anticipation of the next field trip, he has also asked me to investigate planetary power systems. How big would a power system be? What size of radiator for heat rejection would it need? We'd like to deploy a realistically sized and shaped (but not full weight) power station during our next field trip. That would include a kilometer of cable!!! Neat. I've made some phone calls to people in the power group here at JSC and in the exploration office. They will be able to help me with that. Once I have the information, than the technicians in our lab will be able to construct the mock-up.

In a few minutes, I'm attending Freon 21 training. This is necessary so that I'm aware of the potential hazards and emergency procedures associated with Freon 21, which is used in the Building 7 highbay that I walk through daily. Then I have a training session regarding the new travel system that NASA will be using. That will take about an hour. This afternoon I'll spend writing up the boot development plan. Joe is out today, so I'm holding down the fort.