then down to Rio Tinto...
Sep. 3rd, 2005 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaySome photos and narrative from the time this week in Rio Tinto... it has been intense and harried, often going 15-16 hours per day.
On Monday, we went to the Center for Astrobiology near Torrejon AFB, and did end-to-end testing there from CAB's mobile ground station (truck) to the satellite, back down to their facilities and then back over a secure data tunnel back to NASA-Ames. The truck's satellite modem was flaky, and both dishes were initially pointed at the wrong satellite, but we still managed to finish the end-to-end tests by the end of the day Monday. Here's the mobile ground station setup in the parking lot:
On Tuesday, most of us left Torrejon (hopeforyou staying there for science team training at CAB next week) and drove uneventfully to Rio Tinto.
The borehole is 3km away from Rio Tinto, up on a hilltop, just as for the past two years. We're working back and forth between there and the lab in the mining museum, shown here:
Unfortunately, they close at 8pm and evict us, every evening... usually covered in red dust from the dirt roads leading to/from the drill site.
Living space... the Remote Operations team that started the week in Madrid all opted to stay together in cottages on the grounds of a campground. Not many tents in this heat, though... here's the main entrance and name:
Here's our block of cottages -- each is split into two apartments, an A/B side. My group has both sides of cottage 3 (right to left) and Sarah and I are in the B-side of the fourth one. Basically a quad-wide modular structure on a concrete-block foundation, the air conditioning and plumbing are both substandard but functional (no J-tubes, so we have to keep the drains plugged when not in use to avoid bad odors). Still, for E60/night for both of us, not bad at all and we have our own space...
On Wednesday,sarahh and I went to Ikea and to Hipercor (hypermarket, groceries) to get things to set up our household. We have been entertaining here more than I'm used to in a year at home... 8:30am breakfasts here for the team every morning, as well as dinners Wednesday and Thursday this past week. In this photo, sarahh is tidying the living room Wednesday evening before the guests arrive... note the port in the foreground, along with some of boot_slut's homemade cookies... Sarah made both dinners and got lots of compliments. :)
We put a high-power off-the-shelf access point in the campground office... despite the metal walls, we got enough of a signal through the windows that 100m away we could get two bars on the porch area outside of cottage #3, so we've been sitting outside there in the evenings, continuing to work after the museum and borehole sites are closed.
Last night, we (my team) joined the rest of the MARTE folks for dinner at Casiano's, at the Vazquez-Diaz... this should look familiar topatgreene and dawnd. Lots of excellent food, even if generously lubricated with olive oil. ;)
After tinto verrano and some cognac, we wandered around Nerva... KB was looking for a rave... all we found were clusters of teens in a darkened parking lot.
And now... off to Madrid tonight, then to Munich and the autobahn tomorrow.
On Monday, we went to the Center for Astrobiology near Torrejon AFB, and did end-to-end testing there from CAB's mobile ground station (truck) to the satellite, back down to their facilities and then back over a secure data tunnel back to NASA-Ames. The truck's satellite modem was flaky, and both dishes were initially pointed at the wrong satellite, but we still managed to finish the end-to-end tests by the end of the day Monday. Here's the mobile ground station setup in the parking lot:
On Tuesday, most of us left Torrejon (
hopeforyou staying there for science team training at CAB next week) and drove uneventfully to Rio Tinto. The borehole is 3km away from Rio Tinto, up on a hilltop, just as for the past two years. We're working back and forth between there and the lab in the mining museum, shown here:
Unfortunately, they close at 8pm and evict us, every evening... usually covered in red dust from the dirt roads leading to/from the drill site.
Living space... the Remote Operations team that started the week in Madrid all opted to stay together in cottages on the grounds of a campground. Not many tents in this heat, though... here's the main entrance and name:
Here's our block of cottages -- each is split into two apartments, an A/B side. My group has both sides of cottage 3 (right to left) and Sarah and I are in the B-side of the fourth one. Basically a quad-wide modular structure on a concrete-block foundation, the air conditioning and plumbing are both substandard but functional (no J-tubes, so we have to keep the drains plugged when not in use to avoid bad odors). Still, for E60/night for both of us, not bad at all and we have our own space...
On Wednesday,
sarahh and I went to Ikea and to Hipercor (hypermarket, groceries) to get things to set up our household. We have been entertaining here more than I'm used to in a year at home... 8:30am breakfasts here for the team every morning, as well as dinners Wednesday and Thursday this past week. In this photo, sarahh is tidying the living room Wednesday evening before the guests arrive... note the port in the foreground, along with some of boot_slut's homemade cookies... Sarah made both dinners and got lots of compliments. :) We put a high-power off-the-shelf access point in the campground office... despite the metal walls, we got enough of a signal through the windows that 100m away we could get two bars on the porch area outside of cottage #3, so we've been sitting outside there in the evenings, continuing to work after the museum and borehole sites are closed.
Last night, we (my team) joined the rest of the MARTE folks for dinner at Casiano's, at the Vazquez-Diaz... this should look familiar to
patgreene and dawnd. Lots of excellent food, even if generously lubricated with olive oil. ;)After tinto verrano and some cognac, we wandered around Nerva... KB was looking for a rave... all we found were clusters of teens in a darkened parking lot.
And now... off to Madrid tonight, then to Munich and the autobahn tomorrow.
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Date: 2005-09-03 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-04 03:21 am (UTC)thanks for the update, with pictures too *grin*
Date: 2005-09-04 04:33 am (UTC)That is really great you two are able to host those dinners and make it nice for everyone :)
I love to cook for the kids when they come here, it makes me happy.
When you come home you will need a vacation of pure rest.