I learned some lessons in the RAMS 2000 expedition in Antarctica. Here
is a list of them.

1.  ASA provides much and could provide all of the expedition/survival
specific things: snowmobiles, generators, clothing, shelters, tables,
chairs, mugs, eating supplies, food, flights, gasoline. It is easy to go
to the field via ASA because all you need to bring is your robot
specific stuff.

2.  Taking video outside sucks, especially when it is windy.

3.  A heater is very necessary for the endurance tent. The wooden floor
was ideal in the tent.

4.  6 people working in the endurance tent is the max capacity. Each one
should have a chair and space on a table for a laptop and notebook.

5.  Generators need to be filled with oil every 4 dayse. Nomad's oil
sucks to change.

6.  CVS repository in the field is really nice. All code should be
tagged every night.

7.  Email should be retreived twice a day, and data sent every other
day. 64 Kb/s INMARSAT is perfect. The INMARSAT setup this year worked
very well, except for the Canadian LES.

8.  VHF comms suck on flat ice. Use a VHF repeater if working on flat
ground.

9.  Iridium phone is nice because it works on demand with its own
battery. Even though calls would be broken up sometimes, it was the best
phone ever used in the field. INMARSAT phone is nice for conference
calls.

10.  ASA is helpful, but they need to be pushed every once in a while.
It is good to pester them everyday for things you need. For example:
getting space in McMurdo, getting camp supplies, getting snowmobiles set
up.

11.  McMurdo is paradise in Antarctica. Staying there does not wear one
out. Staying in the field wears one out very quickly.

12.  Two weeks is enough in the field, if possible. After that everyone
seems to want to leave.

13.  A day off every once in a while (6-8 days)  would be good. No work
should be required.

14.  Sending pictures and reports every day is a great way to tell the
story. Remember Red's formula: value = 1 / time. No one is going to care
about this project in March when we get back. If we only got the
pictures together and data together then, it would be useless.
Excitement is created by our pseudo-real-time progress reports,
pictures, and data.

15.  Scott tents are ideal for living in. Expedition 25 tents are warmer
and weigh 75 pounds less, but you cannot cook or move around in them.

16.  If the robot must have a harddrive on board, bring a backup hard
drive.

17.  If the robot must run a desktop style OS, make sure it can be
completely admisitered remotely. This might mean hooking up a serial
port to a wireless modem for access to the console. This would prevent a
need for  monitor/keyboard/mouse at the robot.

18.  Don't burn the flash on a vm62 cpu board when the watchdog is on.
The flash will be corrupted.

19.  Community meals at lunch and dinner are nice. Individual breakfasts
in bed are ideal.

20.  Running the robot at 15cm/s sucks. 40cm/s is better, but 2m/s is
ideal for long traverses to search sites. With a delicate arm onboard,
speed is very limited.

21.  Obstacle avoidance that we trust would be nice so a human would not
have to babysit the robot.

22.  A weatherized/Antarctic grade pendant for the robot was really
nice. It could be left on the robot at all times for easy access.

23.  The big gas tank on the robot was nice for long runs > 12 hours.

24.  One set of underwear is good for a week. Changing socks every night
really helps out on the foot odor. Replace socks every 10 days or so.

25.  MSR stoves heat water faster than Optimus stoves. Optimus stoves
seem safer to run inside of a tent.

26.  The bonesaw on a Super Leatherman Tool cuts bamboo really easily.

27.  The snowcraft course that ASA gives was really fun and informative.
The cold weather injuries talk taught me a lot of good things that I did
not know. For example, if you are cold at night, eat something; if your
gloves are wet, sleep with them; you need to eat a lot of granola and
fatty foods to keep you warm.

28.  If working with ASA, having two or three people in McMurdo a couple
weeks before the expedition is very necessary.

29.  Having a set schedule where everyone meets at a particular time in
the morning and enforcing it gets me out of bed. Waking up 1 to 1.5
hours before needing to be at the meeting is perfect to make some
breakfast and "wake up".

30.  Licking your plate clean is the best way to do the dishes after a
meal. One wipe with a papertowel is all that is needed after that.

31.  Getting away from camp to go exploring is a real uplifter.

32.  Books and computer games are good to have during bad weather.

33.  Netscape Mail or something similiar like Eudora is ideal for email.
telnet is a bad idea for a high latency satellite link. It is
unacceptable to telnet to read mail. Web based mail is also a bad idea.

34.  Having access to the entire Internet is nice to check on things:
snow reports at ski resorts, big signal web site, make sure your last
upload made it okay.

35.  20 minutes of INMARSAT time each day is plenty, even for many
megabytes of data. Email links can be done in 3 minutes. Budgetting 30
minutes of phone use a day is a good idea.

36.  A baseball cap is very necessary for working on a laptop in the
endurance tent.

37.  8 hours of sleep a night worked out okay this year for me.

38.  Not being able to fully teleoperate the robot without having
someone at the robot makes things difficult. Someone always needs to be
there to babysit. This is sometimes impossible especially in cases of
bad weather.

39.  A GUI or even plain text UI is necessary to see what motions the
robot is performing. It moves too many times when the operators do not
know it. Remember the slag heaps.

40.  Putting the robot together in the field is very difficult and
dangerous. It is so much better to land with a turn-key system. The
Patriot Hills expedition was better in this respect. We were able to
start the generator while on the C-130 and drive it out immediately.

This is all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading about my lessons.

Mark