Kevin's Blog

So, between our dormitory and the valley is a large ridge. To the right of the ridge is the road in and to the left of it is the road out. We have strict rules which dictate the road into the valley and the road out of the valley. Why? Because these are the most treacherous roads I have ever been on and there is no way to make room to pass another vehicle. If two vehicles ever met head on, it would really, really suck. I mean suck bad… Did I mention this is THE definition of 4wd country?

So Wednesday, Lucas, Janine and I decided to hike into the valley in a direct path over this hill. It looks just like a pitcher’s mound. The color is perfect. The shape is right on. Then only tricky part is that the ridge is covered completely in lava debris. I mean this is exactly where all of your gas grill lava briquettes came from. Everything is loose. When you think you might have found a spot to rest, a lava debris landslide starts. And BTW… lava is sharp and jagged!

So here’s the pitcher’s mound…

One of the interesting plants that somehow survives in this windy, cold and dry environment.

Lucas and Janine hunting for nene birds…

I was surprised how good it would feel reaching the peak. But it was pretty exciting. Maybe that’s because I thought I might die on the climb up.

View of the valley base camp (tent city? The sand box?) coming off of the pitcher’s mound.

So what is our project? We’re a group of scientists and engineers from the United States and Canada working together to build a robotic rover capable of hunting for water, mining and excavating dirt, processing the dirt in a chemical plant and analyzing what it’s made of. If it contains water, the chemistry plant can separate it and measure it.

Within the US, we have team members from Florida, Texas, California and the Washington DC area.

This is inside our tent in the valley where we set up a mini-control room for early checkout.

The payload before integration onto the rover. You can see the drill and chemistry plant.

The rover in the valley before the payload is installed.

Alignment of the prospecting sensors.
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The fully integrated robotic rover working in the valley.

Wednesday started with an early breakfast followed by a safety briefing. Our next 2 days are all about setting up. Friday, we start operational scenarios. Today, we set the stage. So this meant unpacking computers and setting up a moderately sized computer control room.

Our testing with the rover is performed in a nearby valley. The valley is usually accessed with 4wd but for my first time going in, a few of us hiked in. It was a beautiful hike.

A view of my dorm building…

I’ve taken 10 pictures of this view and I can’t figure out how to capture it. It’s looking south and the mountain in the back right is Mauna Loa, the active volcano. Then there is a sea of clouds — we are above the clouds at 9200 feet (2.8 km).