JASON VI Home Page
Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
Over the last day and a half, rover operations have generally continued to go smoothly, with the big highlight being this morning's driving session with ABC's Good Morning America show. GMA host Charles Gibson operated the pan-tilt camera system and drove the vehicle over ten feet during a segment that featured a discussion with JASON's Dr. Bob Ballard. To meet the 7:37 a.m. EST scheduled start for the show (2:37 a.m. here in Hawaii), the on-site team had to get back in the field at 11:30 p.m. last evening to begin preparations with the TV production crew. This was after conducting a typical JASON day, which starts at 4:00 a.m. for pre-show prep and on-line ops at 5, 6:30, 8, 9:10 and 11 a.m.
Structurally, the rover is still hanging together, after almost four full weeks of ongoing field ops. A number of software mods have been identified that would more fully utilize on-board sensor capabilities, but the decision has been made to stay with the current configuration for the remainder of JASON (one such mod involving inclinometer data would help prevent the infamous "tacoing" maneuver that has occurred several times on rough terrain when bus voltage drop-off impacts the motor control calibrations).
One useful feature of the Williams-developed network comm system software that ties together the entire JASON operations with their Primary Interactive Network Sites (PINS) are end-of-the-day evaluation results. The Marsokhod has proven to be very popular, as demonstrated by the data from yesterday's programs (scale of 1 to 5, the latter being the best).
Astronomy 2.5 Biology 3.00 Geology 3.85 Io 1.70 Lava Crane 2.74 Marsokhod 3.42 Spiders 2.21
The top review for Geology reflects the great segment in which field scientists pull an actual piece of lava from an active flow and demonstrate its viscosity before quenching it in water.
Upcoming events include driving the rover for the next three days as part of the regular JASON programs. The possibility exists for also doing something in conjunction with a JASON black-tie fund raiser back on the east coast this coming Saturday (3/4).
Garv
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Gene Carl
Feldman
(gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov)
(301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola,
JASON Foundation for Education
(todd@jason.org)