Preparations for the Aouda-Phileas Labtest
18. May 2010
From the 21st to the 24th of May the next field test for the spacesuit simulator Aouda.X will take place. This time a piece of Phileas Rover hardware will most likely be a part of the test, for the first time! "The goal is the full integration of the electronic-hardware with the option, to test the air-condition and thermal element directly from the mission control centre." explains Dipl. Phys. Klaus Bickert from the team. "Our preparations will also enable the usage of the consisting power distribution, which means that even with bigger problems on this side, everything can be operated mechanically."
This is necessary - the oncoming test is the first, where the suit will be tested in a full experimental setup for contamination experiments. "In this pre-test we will not only work with the microspherers, but with Chinin as a probe. This material is easier to handle than the spheres.", so Ulrich Luger, who - along with Daniel Schildhammer - will be actively testing the suit as well as work in the contamination team. Important tasks will be performed first with the gloves of the suit and will be choreographed step by step. A documentation of this procedure will be made and further on used as a manual for the final experiments. |
 Anna Kluibenschädel and Ulrich Luger preparing the material for the "Mars soil", which will be "contaminated". |
 Anna Kluibenschädel and Ulrich Luger doing dexterity test - is it possibilty to mount the robotic arm on Dignity with the suit gloves? |
If the pretests at the HTL Kapfenberg work as planned, we will also be host to a very special guest: for the first time, Phileas with its brand new wheel axis. This new axis was planned and built as a diploma thesis by Florian Ehrenreich and his colleagues at the HTL, and shall be capable of resisting the high mechanical stresses put on it during the planned high speed drives, when Phileas accompanies the analogueastronauts in the field tests. |
Read also
PolAres Schedule Update
After Rio Tinto in April 2011 this will be the first field test after upgrading the Aouda.X space suit simulator. Proposed location: Dachstein cave systems (upper Austria)
