Wednesday, May 03, 2006

THIRD TEST DAY

Today Wednesday May 3 was our third day of testing. We were worried because of the weather, due to the heavy rain yesterday with the test area very wet. Thanks to strong winds blowing all night the site was dry this morning. The temperature on site was cold with a low of 22 F (See picture).


Despite the inconveniences, we managed to accomplish all the tests that were planned for the today excursion to the site. Fabio (Fabio Sau, our test subject) got for the first time the complete outfit, including the complete outer garment and the backpack (this last one is just a demonstrator and it only houses the transmitter for the wireless biomedical sensors’ package, however, the dimensions of the backpack consider the use of a portable life support system for Mars).


The consumables for our test are received by external umbilical cable and no-so-portable life support system.


Fabio also completed several tasks as collecting samples, using a shovel, and other required assignments. The mobility inside the suit, even with both outer garment and backpack, was excellent.


Our friend and consultant for the project, Gary L. Harris did a superb job designing the soft goods and mobility elements for the suit.

The temperature inside the suit was comfortable, but since there is no heating in our life support system, Fabio felt some cold and so the sensor measured a relatively cool temperature. For the future we are already planning a heater to be incorporated in the backpack.


We took abundant video footage and pictures for future reference.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to start early in the day at the test site, while in the afternoon we will be back at DSU to do walking tests on a treadmill with a special sport monitoring equipment, specifically set up to study Fabio’s locomotion and kinematics with and without the spacesuit.

Pablo de Leon

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