MDRS Day 3 - Déjà Vu

A few hours ago, I had written "Today was a pretty easy day compared to the last two days here at the Hab. There were no power failures, no emergencies, and nothing went wrong that was my fault at the CE." Well, the last couple of hours have hated the CE.

I woke up later than everyone else at 9:15, although I went to bed later than everyone else, so I deserved it. The NASA AMES people were here to facilitate the Quest Challenge webcast. Despite the fact that we finally came online on our side at 9:59, one minute before it started, it went very well. The webcast can be found here, so please feel free to watch if you are interested in the designs that students across the world have, but I don't recommend watching it if you want to see me because they only flash my picture up as I introduce myself and answer a few questions.

We wrapped up the webcast and started out-of-sim ATV training, something that should have been done a day sooner, but oh well. Paul taught us the maintenance, storage, start-up, and proper positions and weight management while riding, all of which are not surprisingly very similar to wave-runners. Everything is practically the same (except for the tires of course), even how to jump start it and curse when it doesn't work.

The ATV course wasn't what I expected, but it was enough to get the hang of steep inclines and declines. The guys tore up the place while the girls tended to be scared of the machines, but I'm afraid that's also typical with waverunners. Boys with toys.

We came back after training and had lunch. Then it was time for in-sim ATV training. We donned the bulky suits and went out to the parking area. However, we had to check the oil, tires, and gas again. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to unscrew tire caps and dipsticks with gloves on, and pouring oil down a hole that's already too small is very frustrating. It took about three times as long to prep the ATVs as it would out-of-sim, but once we were done, riding them in-sim was so much better. I banged my head a few times on the inside of my helmet while doing the only jump we're authorized to do, but it was a blast.

I split from my EVA group while they went to go look at rocks so I could get started on dinner since it was my turn to cook. We had Chinese bee pepper and veggies with rice. Judging by how little everyone ate, I think it was a failure. I managed to screw up rice. I need to work on those cooking skills while I'm home for the break because Pizza Rolls every other night isn't cutting it in college.

After dinner I started working on my engineering report (all daily reports and updates can be found here), and luckily I got done pretty early. Paul came by again to show us how to use the telescope, and since we have authorization to take a nighttime EVA to watch the Geminid meteor shower (something that has NOT been done before at MDRS, so I'm excited!) we might be using the scope more than I thought. One idea for an astronomy project was to track near Earth objects (NEOs) since the other option, searching for supernovas, is a very fruitless project because supernovae are so rare.

Then my night took the turn that has me here now, just past midnight while the rest of the crew has been asleep for a while now. LaTasha and Genoveva reported that half of the GreenHab had lost power, so I asked Paul to help me solve the problem. It turned out that the system didn't lose power, but there were multiple failures, and after solving one, more and more popped up.

The recirculation pump was not operating because the filter that should have been replaced by the last crew (the outgoing biologist even told me I had to replace the filter, I don't know why she couldn't have done it) was stuffed and overpressurized, which shut off the pump. We replaced the filter and discovered that a pipe fitting came off, so I had to fix that. Another filter was also clogged, so we replaced that. Then we found out that the water that was at one point drinkable was nastier than swamp water and that a layer of algae that does something that I don't understand wasn't doing so well. This got Paul pretty steamed, so we emptied that water, flushed out the system, put clean water and bleach into it, and retightened the filter after it sprayed us. At least, I think that's most of what we did on that part.

We also tried several different connections with several different pumps on the trickle pumps, which have been giving me trouble since I got here. After four separate tries, we gave up since they're all pretty substandard. Paul was just going over how the entire system in GreenHab works when the power went out.

I learned that I can add another item to the list of reasons why I'm glad Siemen's Westinghouse never got back with me about that internship. I think power systems are way too complicated and too many things can go wrong so easily. This is reason number two. Reason number one is obvious; if a guy is smart enough to run power systems, he should be smart enough to legally change his last name from something completely laughable, especially when there's a huge office next to a college campus.

We found out that the inverter inside the Hab was failing to communicate with the generator outside. After a few minutes of checking things with the voltmeter, Paul magically pulled a wire out, cut part of it off, stripped it with his pocketknife, and put it back. Magically, the generator cranked up from the signal from the inverter. He may talk a bit too much, but he sure as heck knows how to fix just about anything in this place. Anything, even if he does say he's just making it up as he goes along. Seriously, that was amazing... there's no other way to put it.

We walked back to the GreenHab to see all the lights on. We came in and found a trickle pump that actually worked and put that sucker right in the tank, and sure enough it worked. Paul gave me a strict order to not work on anything else until late tomorrow morning, and I don't have a problem with that at all.

I'm sure I missed one of the problems we fixed, but that's enough for now. All these situations are starting to feel familiar, so at least I'm closer to understanding how it all works. Paul said I'll know everything right before I leave, so I'll only be useful next time I come here (but he didn't mean I'm worthless). Tomorrow I'm going on a morning long-distance EVA with JR on the ATVs, so I need rest. Goodnight world.

"When you've been particular places,
That you know you've never been before,
Can you be sure?
'Cause you know this has happened before."