Special Science Report

February 23, 2008

Guy de Carufel


Project:
GPS Positioning Study


Personnel:
Guy de Carufel


Operations Data Collected:
In preparation for EVA 6, a total of 4 UTM coordinate targets were
drawn on a map as a guideline for the route to take. The points were
set so that approximately 20 minutes would be required to travel between
them. During EVA-06, the following steps were done:

1. Set a waypoint at the starting point
2. Travel in the predefined direction for 10 minutes towards the first
coordinate target
3. Stop, take a waypoint on GPS, leave an obvious marker
4. Continue towards first point.
5. Repeat for all 4 points.
6. Come back to hab.

With the help of the tracklogger on the GPS devices, a full tracklog was
kept for future comparison.


Technical/Equipment Issues:
A voice recorder was brought with the hopes of being able to record
comments and observations. The method used was to set the recorder in
automatic (VCVA) such that it starts recording whenever I would speak.
No comments were necessary, so the recorder was not used. Headphone
fell in front of face in the helmet which was a nuisance. Will need to
fix that better next time used.


Discussion:
Next step will be to give the waypoints found on this EVA as targets.
The navigator will attempt to travel to the target using a biased
position which will be obtained from a simple program on a graphic
calculator. Once the target is within the range of the preset error,
the navigator will resort to visual hunting to find the waypoint
marker. These efforts will be timed and tracked with GPS trackloger.


Questions for CSO:
None so far.