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340 miles and 12 waypoints and 3 calls
"You've saved our whole week of fieldwork." "This has worked out far better than I ever expected." "We made no progress until you got here." These were pretty gratifying things to hear this afternoon, coming from other project leads and colleagues on site. The trip out here was certainly worthwhile...
I got up at 5am in Las Vegas, drove 340 miles to the test site north of Joseph City (got there around 11am), organized a test session, fought dust storms, got the data. Now I'm in Winslow, AZ... I stood on the corner downtown, but no attractive women driving flatbed trucks tried to pick me up ;-).
The drive was uneventful... I could cruise at 80-85mph for nearly the whole way. AR's directions were lousy (took me to a landfill !) and I wandered around dirt roads for awhile. The test site wound up being located a mile behind the landfill... on private land for which the USGS has access permits. It's not that great of a Mars analog, but wonderful geologically. On the edge of the Painted Desert area, part of the Blue Mesa formation... full of signs of ancient rivers and lakes. And awash in petrified wood... all over. Even a few logs. It was hard to not over-sample. Lots of fully agate pieces, varieties of colors and processes.. one with fine-grained structures still preserved! And water-rounded specimens, one with banding around it. ;-).
But... six inches of loose clay and silt, which made it hard to keep tent stakes anchored. As I arrived, so was a thunderstorm... as at Burning Man and other desert locales, the preceding winds carried a dust blanket. All over us and our equipment. Then rain that turned the top inch of clay into sticky mud. The spacesuit guys from JSC gave up and left... they can't handle mud in the joints of their pressurized suit. As did the communications team from NASA-Glenn.
Our ARC folks were muttering about the weather and doing likewise. I wasn't going to drive out there just to go home... so I told them that I was going to take the sim-rover out and collect images for the 3D database, whether or not they wished to come along. They did.. at first reluctantly, then with increasing enthusiasm as they began to see data and results. The first systematic data collected this week... weather and equipment have not cooperated. And they lacked leadership, someone to be a bellwether and just start out. And organization...
I got my 100m-spaced grid points in a 3x4 matrix, with panoramic and closeup images at each waypoint. And I gave AR and SD something that they could also point towards as a success after their frustrating week here.
Following an excellent suggestion from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
daltong, the whole team went to the restored 1930 railroad hotel (La Posada), where I had meltingly good chile-mint lamb chops...
Then I came back to my room, feeling self-confident and generally happy with developments. But three phone calls from three friends/sweeties later, I'm down and feeling isolated and alone... sigh. I'm not going to go into specific details. Other than I will have to be quiet, suck it up, and get through the next two weeks. And the long term is unsettled in two of three cases. And APC9 is problematic, looming in November... that issue tears me at least three ways.
True to form, I can rack up successes at work, while struggling at the personal/social level.
Tomorrow, I'll visit Barringer Crater on my way to Flagstaff and thence home by Saturday afternoon. No weekend plans, other than buying groceries...
I got up at 5am in Las Vegas, drove 340 miles to the test site north of Joseph City (got there around 11am), organized a test session, fought dust storms, got the data. Now I'm in Winslow, AZ... I stood on the corner downtown, but no attractive women driving flatbed trucks tried to pick me up ;-).
The drive was uneventful... I could cruise at 80-85mph for nearly the whole way. AR's directions were lousy (took me to a landfill !) and I wandered around dirt roads for awhile. The test site wound up being located a mile behind the landfill... on private land for which the USGS has access permits. It's not that great of a Mars analog, but wonderful geologically. On the edge of the Painted Desert area, part of the Blue Mesa formation... full of signs of ancient rivers and lakes. And awash in petrified wood... all over. Even a few logs. It was hard to not over-sample. Lots of fully agate pieces, varieties of colors and processes.. one with fine-grained structures still preserved! And water-rounded specimens, one with banding around it. ;-).
But... six inches of loose clay and silt, which made it hard to keep tent stakes anchored. As I arrived, so was a thunderstorm... as at Burning Man and other desert locales, the preceding winds carried a dust blanket. All over us and our equipment. Then rain that turned the top inch of clay into sticky mud. The spacesuit guys from JSC gave up and left... they can't handle mud in the joints of their pressurized suit. As did the communications team from NASA-Glenn.
Our ARC folks were muttering about the weather and doing likewise. I wasn't going to drive out there just to go home... so I told them that I was going to take the sim-rover out and collect images for the 3D database, whether or not they wished to come along. They did.. at first reluctantly, then with increasing enthusiasm as they began to see data and results. The first systematic data collected this week... weather and equipment have not cooperated. And they lacked leadership, someone to be a bellwether and just start out. And organization...
I got my 100m-spaced grid points in a 3x4 matrix, with panoramic and closeup images at each waypoint. And I gave AR and SD something that they could also point towards as a success after their frustrating week here.
Following an excellent suggestion from
daltong, the whole team went to the restored 1930 railroad hotel (La Posada), where I had meltingly good chile-mint lamb chops... Then I came back to my room, feeling self-confident and generally happy with developments. But three phone calls from three friends/sweeties later, I'm down and feeling isolated and alone... sigh. I'm not going to go into specific details. Other than I will have to be quiet, suck it up, and get through the next two weeks. And the long term is unsettled in two of three cases. And APC9 is problematic, looming in November... that issue tears me at least three ways.
True to form, I can rack up successes at work, while struggling at the personal/social level.
Tomorrow, I'll visit Barringer Crater on my way to Flagstaff and thence home by Saturday afternoon. No weekend plans, other than buying groceries...
Now Wait a minute.....
I don't understand why your relationships are always up and down. This is the second time that I clearly remember that your LDRS are just up in the air. Never mind, not mine to understand. But I'll be here for you if you need an ear.
Re: Now Wait a minute.....
Thanks... not everything/everyone is up in the air. But life is very stressful right now, and I can't control all of what is happening :-|
Re: Now Wait a minute.....
I am dealing with the everything and life being up in the air too. I don't have any recomednations on how to not stress about it. If you think of something let me know. Ever think of unwinding at like Kiva for an hour? Or did you get that hot tub? I think I could squeez something like that in and a nice tea or coffee afterwards.
no subject
"You've saved our whole week of fieldwork." "This has worked out far better than I ever expected." "We made no progress until you got here." These were pretty gratifying things to hear this afternoon, coming from other project leads and colleagues on site. The trip out here was certainly worthwhile...
That's excellent, and says a lot about you as a creative engineer.
Now I'm in Winslow, AZ... I stood on the corner downtown, but no attractive women driving flatbed trucks tried to pick me up ;-).
Did any slow down to get a look at you? ;)
It's not that great of a Mars analog, but wonderful geologically. On the edge of the Painted Desert area, part of the Blue Mesa formation... full of signs of ancient rivers and lakes. And awash in petrified wood... all over. Even a few logs. It was hard to not over-sample. Lots of fully agate pieces, varieties of colors and processes.. one with fine-grained structures still preserved! And water-rounded specimens, one with banding around it. ;-).
You should warn people when you're going to post erotic stories like this . . . . ;)
But... six inches of loose clay and silt, which made it hard to keep tent stakes anchored. As I arrived, so was a thunderstorm... as at Burning Man and other desert locales, the preceding winds carried a dust blanket. All over us and our equipment. Then rain that turned the top inch of clay into sticky mud.
Except for the mud, isn't that a good Mars analog? Aren't dust storms an issue there?
... so I told them that I was going to take the sim-rover out and collect images for the 3D database, whether or not they wished to come along. They did.. at first reluctantly, then with increasing enthusiasm as they began to see data and results. The first systematic data collected this week... weather and equipment have not cooperated. And they lacked leadership, someone to be a bellwether and just start out. And organization...
They needed you.
Then I came back to my room, feeling self-confident and generally happy with developments. But three phone calls from three friends/sweeties later, I'm down and feeling isolated and alone... sigh. I'm not going to go into specific details. Other than I will have to be quiet, suck it up, and get through the next two weeks. And the long term is unsettled in two of three cases.
*hug* I'm so sorry about that.
And APC9 is problematic, looming in November...
I wanted to go to that, but had to make plans, and there wasn't a clear go/no-go in time for me.
I hate mixed emotions. I wish you whatever it takes to iron out some of the bumps. . . .
no subject
Bonehead.
On the edge of the Painted Desert area, part of the Blue Mesa formation... full of signs of ancient rivers and lakes. And awash in petrified wood... all over. Even a few logs. It was hard to not over-sample. Lots of fully agate pieces, varieties of colors and processes.. one with fine-grained structures still preserved!
That sounds beautiful! Oh, I wish I could see it. I can't wait to see the images. Sounds like I'd be too tempted to do what I do at Rockhound State Park, though. Hmmm. Come to think of it, I wonder if a permit there would allow you to test a rover for taking soil and rock samples? It's a thought...
And water-rounded specimens, one with banding around it. ;-).
Anything like
The spacesuit guys from JSC gave up and left... they can't handle mud in the joints of their pressurized suit. As did the communications team from NASA-Glenn.
That sucks. Now how can you do a test comparison? Argh.
collect images for the 3D database, whether or not they wished to come along.
At some point the science behind this has to be discussed. There's 3D, and then there's 3D. The Mars Virtual 3D sim was generated using hundreds of images taken from stereographic cameras. I'm not sure how to take the flat images and project them into 3D space using a single camera.
And they lacked leadership, someone to be a bellwether and just start out. And organization..
They needed you. Your encouragement, your leadership, your direction. They're lucky to have you.
I got my 100m-spaced grid points in a 3x4 matrix, with panoramic and closeup images at each waypoint.
Okay, that's right...we discussed that process during the meeting. I guess that partially answers my question above.
And I gave AR and SD something that they could also point towards as a success after their frustrating week here.
That's excellent. Given weather conditions and the other teams pulling out, I think you've risen above the challenge.
(La Posada), where I had meltingly good chile-mint lamb chops...
I find that really good food helps me get through some of the rougher parts of life. Take any kind of pampering you can get to balance out the rest is my philosophy, I suppose. What was the rest of the menu like and the atmosphere?
I'm down and feeling isolated and alone... sigh. I'm not going to go into specific details.
I'm sorry to hear that. Hope things get better. *hug*
No weekend plans, other than buying groceries...
If it's any consolation, I have no plans for this weekend other than to get back to normal and clean my apartment. Grocery shopping is probably in there somewhere, too. Remind me about Zucca's...once
Sucking it Up
Love and Hugs T
no subject
Awfully sorry you're so down. I have some extra good energy, so I'll send it your way. I know where--oops, you're back, are you not? I'll just send it down the peninsula, then!
no subject
:-(((
Hugs