Additional Report Day 5

Log Book for April 5, 2007
EVA Report by Alex Diaz

EVA Support Task-3:

Context: UND NDX-1 Average Walking Speed
Duration: 05:00 - 07:30
Weather: Clear (dawn)
Maximum distance traveled from Hab: 680m
Route: NDX-1 suit subject (Fabio Sau) headed north on Lowell Highway.
Equipment: NDX-1 Spacesuit and supporting equipment (i.e. ATV, compressor, and generator), video camera, digital camera, GPS, radios, and notepad/pen.

Participants: EVA Support Task-3 (Alex Diaz, Marcus Medley, Pieter Jan Van Asbroeck and Chip Shepherd), and NDX-1 Crew (Pablo De Leon, Ana De Leon and Fabio Sau).

Objectives - Work Done: Assisted NDX-1 team with pressurized suit walking demonstrations. Objective was to find an average walking speed. EVA started at 6:19 AM, and plan was to walk north on Lowell Highway; this route was chosen because it is relatively flat. However, 11m 33 sec into the walk (at 6:31 AM), the EVA had to be aborted due to suit compressor problems. An attempt to repair the problem on site was attempted (by replacing generator), but that proved fruitless. The farthest location reached was UTM 12S 0518737E 4250825N; distance of 680m from Hab. According to GPS measurements, NDX-1 suit subject's moving average speed was 3.5 km/hr. The compressor problem has been fixed by University of North Dakota personnel and we will continue with this test tomorrow.

Lessons Learned:
Starting early is very important to avoid overheating of pressurized suited crew.
Walkback data collection using the GPS units was successful.