Today is our one and only attempt for Segement 3 - an endurance challenge designed to run-out comm, data, batteries, and Boudreaux.

Segment 3 requires the ERA team to belay Boudreaux down to the bottom of Lith Canyon. There Boudreaux will tow the science trailer carrying tools and equipment to assist the astronauts as they stress the limits of the wireless data network, the mobile agents infrastructure, and their own stamina in the suits and the heat.

• The ERA team left the Whispering Sands Motel at 7:30 this morning to give plenty of time to belay Boudreaux the robot and his science trailer approximatley 75 meters along a sloped path down into Lith Canyon. Nathan Howard did an excellent job setting up the ropes and directing the phyiscal effort, with assistance from Jeff, Rob, Ron and Yilmaz.
• Today's run started at approximately 20:10 UTC (2:10pm local time).
• The obstacle avoidance system came very close to failing once today at 22:25UTC, slightly scraping a large rock after two forward-backward-turn attempts around it. An e-stop was pressed by field support crew.
• ERA's computer inside Astronaut One's infoPak backpack reached a peak cpu temperate of 44 degrees celsius (111 deg F) and never failed due to heat. Mobile Agents' computer inside the same infoPak did fail due to heat (something above 55 degrees celsius (131 deg F). CPU loading on the MA computer and poor venting at the laptop caused the high heat and failure.
• Today's run ended at approximately 23:28UTC.
• Boudreaux suffered no hardware failures or anomalies today, and required no primary battery swaps. The ERA laptops had their batteries replaced at the start of the EVA start (they we up and running since 17:00 UTC, when the EVA was origionally scheduled to begin). After the run was over, one of the main laptop onboard Boudreaux failed (dead batteries) because it was not immediately removed and placed on AC power.
• The following objectives were accomplished today:
  • A total of six "take image" commands
  • A total of four "take panorama" commands
  • A total of six "follow me" commands
  • A total of five "watch me" commands
  • the interesting combination of watching one astronaut with a pan-tilt camer while following the other astronaut.
  • A total of four "stop" commands
  • multiple "report position" commands
  • multiple "define position" commands
  • One "report ground-track map" command
  • One "report elevation map" command (after a fixed bug on a failed first attempt). The map itself was not very useful since Astronaut Two is not reporting elevation due to it's limited gps hardware.
  • Speech output from Boudreaux through Brahms out to the astronauts and HabCom using the new speechServer and speechListener.
  • Situational Awareness of the remote EVA from HabCom was achieved by providing live imagery from Boudreaux and various GUIs, some showing the agent positions and they move about.
  • Acted as a data communications relay from the astronauts up to the repeaters and back to the Hab.
  • A series of still images were collected of the entire EVA to be stitched together as a short movie.
• Only one objective was not accomplished today: the "print curation label" command failed due to a hardware failure in the printer itself (probably sand in the mechanism). The sound it made on powerup was horrid.
• The total times and distances traveled by the 3 agents today were:
  • Boudreaux, 3.3006 hours, 289.937 meters
  • AstroOne, 3.2945 hours, 1740.931 meters
  • AstroTwo, 3.2882 hours, 1517.784 meters
• After the run, Nathan, Rob and Jeff, with assistance from Ron and Ed, belayed the robot and science trailer up from the canyon floor and helped it get back to the camp.
• The ERA team packed up and secured everything for the ride along rough BLM roads from the Lith site back to the MDRS Habitat and the Whispering Sands hotel for final packing.

To summarize the day, all field teams had an excellent run, and the ERA team performed well. The Lith Canyon challenge has finally been met, though not conquered.