We've gotten quite accustomed to our new home now. The 45 degree (Fahrenheit) daily temperature change, the dust, the little dog that sometimes ignores you and other times tries desparately to bite into your boots.
Things are going well. We had another communications test yesterday, and were able to do even more; we had two hours of verbal and electronic communication with folks in Pittsburgh and elsewhere in the US. It was great to know that the email we'd been collecting for a week had been delivered, and that we'd even received some responses to it. That test was done at our base camp; now we're packing everything up for transport to the start of Nomad's route through the desert.
Sensors are being readied for their final Trek configuration. Six stereo cameras will function as Nomad's eyes, telling it what the path ahead looks like and which areas are safe to travel. These were mounted in place and calibrated today, which will enable testing of the navigation system in the days to come. And the real time controller is being hardened for the desert, with control code being burned into EPROMs.
Since our Operations Truck has been delayed in transport, the Chilean Army has graciously allowed us the use of one of their ambulances. We spent some of today outfitting it for use as our mobile command center in the days ahead.
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Last Modified on: Wed Jun 25, 1997