From: Graham Mann <G.Mann@murdoch.edu.au>
To: 'Tim Menzies' <tim@menzies.us>
Subject: RE: silly pride at new web site
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 21:44:28 +0800

Hi Tim,

Didn't know you were still doing NASA stuff. Tell them to get their fingers out, stop going around in circles (Earth orbit) and _get their ass to Mars_.

I've been in Utah, doing a Mars simulation at the MDRS for the last couple of weeks. Sorry I didn't have time to come up to Portland and visit you, but it was all work, work, work (rather than work, rest and play, as it is supposed to be). You can see some of that in the logs for Crew 14 (aka Expedition-One) at http://www.marssociety.org/MDRS/fs02/

But also see some pictures attached.

I spent the first week of my rotation working on my human factors research on the two pressurised rover prototypes, then at the request of the mission commander, added a third data point to that study with another small vehicle (a Nissan Pathfinder). There are good reasons for doing that. The experiment worked amazingly well, when I consider how many things might have gone wrong - breakdowns, not being able to get a good crew, and of course the weather. A little rain, which ceased the day after I arrived and recommenced the day I left, could have finished the whole thing.

As it was, I got two glorious weeks of (cold) sunshine, and a "dream team" crew consisting of engineer and rover driver Stan Peicocinski, University of Chicago biologist Nancy Wood and geologist Jon Clarke. These guys were game for anything, and went through many hours of exhausting exercise out there in the Utah desert. This context is absolutely unique to my knowledge, and I am thrilled to have been there bagging data as it unfolded. I hope to publish this study in the Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

We've gotten private funding to build our own Aussie rover, and it's now under construction in Fremantle, under my management. When it's built I'll get the same team down here and we'll do it again with the new machine.

A French TV crew spent a couple of days filming us and said they would overdub us in French. Ooh, la-la!

In the second week, I made myself available as engineer and tried to support the research of others, since my own stuff had gone so well. That is a real workout, mentally, physically, emotionally. Things break down all the time, and you have to fix them, *right now*. Many aspects of the station are very high-tech, but others are, in my opinion, a little half- assed, and some are positively unsafe.

For example, there is a tall post supporting weather instruments sticking up high into the air - the highest point on the MDRS cylinder. Becuase it is plastic, those installing it probably didn't think they needed to worry about lightning. So there's no ground strap. But it has metallic paint and wires running down it. At those voltages, the thing serves as a pretty good conductor. So we were treated to a pretty impressive display of pyrotechnics when a bolt hit it, and the juice found it's way to ground by throwing half-meter sparks across to the metal ribs inside the Hab! There's also a radio telescope antenna connected directly to a reciever inside the upper level, with no isolation switch! That got fried too, this time.

It was also quite interesting when the gas-fired power generator caught fire at 2:15 in the morning. Had to do an emergency shutdown of the propane tanks to avoid explosion! Then spent the whole day rejigging the power circuits so they'd work with the backup 7kW petrol generator. That was a hard day.

We've written a whole series of notes to the designer, Frank Schubert, recommending a long list of needed work.

It was also interesting being in a full simulation, and locked in with 8 men and women, even for a relatively short time. In full sim you cannot go outside without a spacesuit, even to empty the rubbish. Pyschosocially, that's a real pressure-cooker. It's suprising how intense your feelings become - I fell quite in love with Nishi Rawat, our medical officer, and caught myself hating some of the aweigh crew for no reason, even though they had been out in the Everest rover for only 3 days. Why? Pyschologist Steve Dawson had us doing psych tests just about every day, to study all this.

It's getting up to the best you could hope for in a simulation, except that it needs to last longer and have better worked out protocols. That's part of the game, I suppose. Sometimes I really felt like I was on Mars, except when something happened to spoil the illusion, such as three drunken coyboys riding up to have a look one day ("Dang! what in tarnation d'ya suppose that thang is, Tex"?) See one of the pictures for that weirdness.

All the best to you and Helen.

Cheerio