Kia Kaha on a great morning from Mars.

At 0520 hours this morning - time we started operation Antipodes 3, where we simulated loss of contact from Aouda.X space suit located in Dachstein/Austria and their Cap-Com Mission Control. KiwiMars 2012 acted as Mission Control for the duration of the experiment and had the support of Wellington Mission Control, our Flight Director Mr Elf Eldridge on hand.


Snapshot 1- See through Aouda.X helmoet video-camera. The person in white is the assistant for the suit-tester

Antipodes is an operations experiment, where we assume a loss of communication between the Mission Support Center on “Earth”, whereas a parallel landing party on the other side of Mars will take over the coordination of an ongoing Extra-Vehicular Activity via their habitat, relayed via a satellite in Martian orbit.

Participants

  • Kiwispace crew at the Mars Desert Research Station, Utah, Commander Haritina Mogosanu
  • Kiwispace Mission Control Center, MacDiarmid Institute, Wellington/New Zealand, Flight Director Mr Elf Eldridge
  • OeWF field team, Dachstein caves, Austria


Snapshot 2 - Aouda.X collecting contaminated ice under the direction of CapCom - KiwiMars from MDRS

Scenario

After losing the communication to “Earth” (e.g. satellite is out-of-range), a request is sent to the MDRS and/or MCC Wellington to take over operations for an ongoing experiment within the cave. The telemetry data are relayed to MDRS / MCC Wellington for approximately 30 min.

There were 3 Antipodes experiments planned.

ANTIPODES 3 (MDRS directs Aouda.X)
Tue, 01May2012, 14:00 (DS) = 06:00 (MDRS) = 00:00 (NZ): Antipodes 3

  1. T -30 min: establishing contact between MCC Wellington, MDRS & Aouda.X & OPS/D - verifying broadband access, go ahead from both Flight Directors. Announcing who is the suit tester for this EVA.
  2. T 0: Upon OPS/D "GO", cave team at Dachstein crews commences experiment, MDRS follows the procedures
  3. T +10 min: Loss of satellite signal, "no connection" between Aouda.X and OPS/D, requesting handover to MDRS by Aouda.X
  4. T +11 min: MDRS monitors Aouda.X, has a few minutes to adjust and get ready: verify connection to OPS/D
  5. T +15 min: MDRS takes over and continues experiment, e.g. sample site selection based upon video data
  6. T +30 min: MDRS concludes procedure, OPS/D resumes operation and continuous experiment.
  7. T +45 min: Experiment closure for MDRS - opportunity for informal communication.

The operation was a success as we relayed our commands directly from MDRS to the Aouda.X suit tester in Dachstein, Austria. We had voice contact via Mumble and Video contact with the camera on the space suit (attached two snap shots taken during the exercise). The two 'parties' landed on Mars cooperated successfully in this world-first event of its kind.

Please advise if you need further detail ref. this morning's operation.

End of transmission

Ad Ares!

Haritina Mogosanu
Commander Crew 118 KiwiMars

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