Log Book for January 10, 2011
Science Report 3
Lucinda Land Reporting
Today was the day to complete the router range tests with Sandstorm. Tests of the router inside the Hab were initially conducted and further EVA's with the router outside were needed. We had successful connection to Sandstorm outside the Hab on Saturday. Today we were going to test once more the range of the router signal distance. Saturday's distance was much less than with the router inside the Hab. It didn't make sense that inside the Hab the rover drove a total of 209.21 meters and with the router outside the Hab it only drove 128.74 meters. With the decision to test the router one more time outside the Hab and fresh batteries in Sandstorm, the expected results would have been that she exceeded 209.21 meters.
Unfortunately, we were having difficulty connecting to Sandstorm today. Our EVA started late in the day around 14:00 hours. The Sun was just below the tallest hills in the area of the Hab and the temperature was dropping fast. My fingers became immediately numb.
Connecting the computer to Maxnet (router connection) was successful initially. Then the computer would lose connection. So it was very unstable. All systems were still good on Sandstorm. Her CPU was standing by to connect. However, the software that controls Sandstorm never found her and so we were not able to turn on her mechanical switch (SERVO) to began her EVA 18.
We brought Sandstorm in and connected her to Maxnet right away. She has no problems connecting to Maxnet while inside the Hab. Her batteries had only been running less than thirty minutes and so we decided to drive her around a bit inside to make sure all systems were good with her before trying her outside once more. We connected her to RunWizard and switched on her SERVO and she came alive. Excitement filled the lab as her camera resets to a default position and we have a clear video picture.
We decided to take a few pictures using printscreen with her video images while inside the Hab and even increased her resolution to get clearer video feedback. Before taking her out again to test connectivity we gave her another set of fresh batteries even though she was still well under her hour time limit.
Thus begun EVA 19. We took Sandstorm outside as well as the router and tried to connect to Maxnet. No success. It was even colder than earlier. We know she can connect to Maxnet as we had just done so inside the Hab. Our best guess is that there may have been interference today with Maxnet to Sandstorm that was preventing us from connecting.