From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMT1DZGRMG_index_0.html

Exploring Rio Tinto Eurobotically
European Space Agency 
2 May 2011

No wonder it is called Red River: it looks like it could be on the red
planet rather than in Spain. The landscape and terrain make it a perfect
place for simulating a Mars sortie.
 
An ESA rover, a spacesuit mockup and a medical monitoring system took
centre stage between 18-22 April at Rio Tinto in Andalucia, southern
Spain.  

The Spanish weather, however, was not very martian, as the normally dry
and sunny conditions turned to heavy rain and wind at times.

The teams from ESA, the Austrian Space Forum and the local organisers
were able to achieve most of what they set out to do. There were plenty
of lessons learned and loads of data for the scientists, doctors and
engineers to dive into.

Eurobot goes out
 
This was the first time the four-wheeled Eurobot Ground Prototype had
ventured out into the real world in a fully fledged live test.

This new robotic assistant is designed to move around and work on a
planet either on its own or in league with astronauts.

Eurobot sports a pair of arms with interchangeable tools, a suite of
sensors and its own eyes. It can also transport an astronaut, who
operates it by simple voice commands or a joystick.

Philippe Schoonejans showed his rover no mercy: "There is always a
certain risk in this, because we don't have a lot of spares available in
the field, but pushing the technology to and maybe beyond its limits
always teaches us a lot."
 
Like a spacesuit for Mars
 
The tests also used a novel spacesuit mockup, Aouda.X, developed by the
Austrian Space Forum.

With a helmet featuring a head-up display, full air circulation with
carbon dioxide removal, medical monitoring, joints and gloves emulating
the stiffness of a real suit and radio equipment, Aouda.X feels like a
real spacesuit worn by astronauts exploring a planet.

The inside vest was the latest version of ESA's Long Term Medical Survey
System (LTMS), measuring several of the wearer's critical physiological
parameters, was also put to the test.

It is already being used at the Concordia research station in
Antarctica. The Rio Tinto tests gathered even more data on its
performance, at the same time suggesting possible developments.

"Medical doctors supporting Mission Control in Innsbruck were very happy
when they received the flawless data from LTMS, "praised Michel
Lazerges, ESA's technical officer for the system.

Scott Hovland was smiling at the end of the tests: "Everything went
extremely well considering the difficulties with the weather, and both
Eurobot and LTMS demonstrated many of their capabilities and returned
safely back to ESA's Technical Centre ESTEC." 

The Rio Tinto field test campaign was organised by the Austrian Space
Forum (ÖWF) together with Prof. Felipe Gomez from the Centro de
AstroBiologia institute in Madrid and Europlanet (a European research
organisation for planetary science), which provided the necessary
infrastructure and ground support.

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