The last of the new radio gear arrived for Away 35. Anytime a new piece of hardware goes into the mix it all needs to be retested. We always conduct the range testing in the same place. We “shoot the beam” down the road by the shop that has a tremendous about of radio interference. We walk down the road carrying the system stopping every hundred feet. While we’re doing that the folks in the mission control van are sending commands to the unit and looking at signal strengths.
It was a good day to be in mission control and a bad day to be walking the road. It was well over 100 degrees and we just melted. Mission control was nice and cool with it’s industrial strength air conditioner.
Mark and Bob emerging from mission control.
The laser housings for the Away 35 laser array test arrived. We couldn’t resist firing the lasers up. It’s our own Death Star. Although on the mission they won’t be mount with a rubber band.
