Log Book for January 14, 2011

Science Report 3

Lucinda Land Reporting

I started the morning taking imagery of the crew doing their morning exercises. I wanted to get used to using the equipment before taking it out on sim. It is the Gigapan camera developed by Carnegie Melon University in collaboration with NASA and the Intelligent Robotics Group. The idea is that the Gigapan is mounted on top of Sandstorm as it does its EVA's. It can take high resolution imagery of the area and geology.

Using it inside the Hab is easy. The Gigapan walks you through the steps and you can use all types of cameras with it. It does have small buttons and a difficult to reach battery connector which made it difficult setting it up outside the Hab while in sim.

We took a Panorama image of the crew this morning doing our exercises after breakfast. We a had a lot of fun with that. It was a quick capture since it was just a panorama which took about 40 shots in total.

Outside the Hab while on an EVA with the XO and the Commander a 360 degree panorama was taken. This was definitely more difficult. Using the gloves to handle the Gigapan was difficult with those tiny buttons. Connecting the batteries is difficult with the hidden compartment where the batteries are stored and needing to be attached to the motherboard. The space is limited for ungloved fingers and with gloves on was frustrating but after many trials the connection was made. I would advise practicing this part with gloves on before going on an EVA.

The camera took a 360 degree panorama and captured about 117 shots in all of an area just east of the Hab. These images will be stitched back together later. Tomorrow, we will travel to a higher location where a 360 panorama of the Hab and larger area of our location will be captured with the rising sun. We'll need to get up early for that.