Summary:

Extremely successful EVA in comparison to last field season in regards to the robustness and sophistication of the system. The EVA lasted 4 hours in a very "real-time" and realistic atmosphere. The ERA played a prominent and crucial role in helping the astronauts achieve their field goals by providing a workstation and reducing fatigue by carrying important equipment.

Accomplishments by:

EVA Plan

• We accomplished all tasks up through Sample at Red Hill. Time constraints prevented Sample at Little Red Hill, Soil Core activities, and stow equipment. Walk back to Hab was manually instigated by HabCom. ERA & Science Trailer
• The ERA followed Astro 1 to and from the field with no manual control, using the "Boudreaux, Follow Me" command.
• The ERA served as a base of operations for sampling at Rock Hill and Back Hill locations.
• Science Trailer is useful as a storage tool for samples and equipment. There were six sample bags between the two astronauts. Samples and tools would have been too cumbersome to transfer between locations in the field and to carry back to the hab at the end of the EVA.
• Improvised booklet of maps, panoramas, and voice commands was attached to the top of the Science Trailer as a field reference. This proved useful when we needed to refer back to new voice commands that had not been previously used.

Astro 1

• My first EVA with full human-robot interaction with the robot acting autonomously to my commands.
• Majority of time was spent working with commanding Boudreaux (the ERA) such as follow me, take a panorama, take picture of me, and watch me.
• Was able to sample at Rock Hill and The Mount using the nifty nabber, special tongs to grab the rock samples without bending over.
• Able to create sample bags with the Letter Letter / Digit Digit / Digit Digit format. With this format we could indicate sample location, astronaut who took sample, and sample number (e.g. RK/11/01 is for RocK hill taken by astro 1 at station 1 sample 01).
• Able to lead ERA to the field and return the robot safely.

Astro 2

• Managed to follow the majority of the plan (e.g. Egress, Starting Bio-sensors and GPS tracking, and starting Sample at Rock Hill).
• Able to name locations and associate images, voice notes, and samples with locations.
• Sample bags could be associated with voice notes, however I had problems with associating images and voice notes.
• Sample bags were taken at Rock Hill, Back Hill, and Red Hill with associated voice notes at each location and images were associated with each location.
• Tried out a number of voice commands: What time is it? Where am I? How much time is left?, What is current activity? Responses were timely and accurate.

Room for Improvement

• Astronauts need to stay within safe and helpful distance to each other. This was exhibited the need to help with stowing equipment on one-self, also when during equipment failures (e.g. Astro 1's camera batteries died, and needed Astro 2 to take a photo, while at Back Hill). The other astronaut serves as a useful scale in photos and to indicate cardinal directions.
• Push-to-talk function on the radios limited the astronauts in discussing what tasks to perform and observations and interpretations of the outcrops. A vox communication system would be much more helpful and natural for the astronauts to communicate with each other. The PTT function interrupts making voice notes and is mentally distracting from the task at hand. Finding the button or waiting for someone else to finish talking is time consuming. Communication about what tasks the other astronaut has accomplished at the outcrop is hindered by different styles of working and lack of delegation of who was to perform which tasks.

Post-EVA Analysis

• Samples were photographed individually in the Hab. The Astronauts used compendium to create a map of their own descriptions, observations, and interpretations for each sample and location. This was sent to the RST to help them with their analysis.