Nov 21
We finished building the tent yesterday. It took us all day yesterday – we worked from 7:30 in the morning to about 6:30 in the evening, with about 1.5-2 hours of break time for lunch and planning. There were two factors that made things difficult. First, our tent had to be 15 ft. high because the gantry for lifting the robot has to be a certain height. This meant that two people had to get up on a scaffolding to connect the tent poles at the top. We had 17 tent poles (straight poles + curved rods for arches) in all and it took us more than an hour to set up the first 4. We finally figured out a system and worked in an efficient and coordinated manner to get the rest in fast. Second, it was very windy, making us use a lot of our energy to stay warm. The wind also made it very hard to set up the side panels and the blanket over the tent. Annika, Chad, Elijah, Maciej and Robin worked with us all day and their help was invaluable.
I was too cold to take many pictures with my camera, but Robin took many good pictures which she graciously shared with me.
The tent frame ended up being smaller than the platform. We had to screw in wooden blocks on the inside edge of the platform to have a place to bolt the tent frame. Peter, Maciej and Bob.
Sorting and organizing the tent poles. Myself.
Assembling the first arch.
The first two arches were the hardest.
Kristof and Bill on the scaffold connecting the arches.
All arches mounted. Peter.
Attaching the side panel.
The completed tent.
Back row - Bob, Peter, Bill, Chris, Kristof. Front row - Shilpa, Vickie, Annika, Robin, Bart, Maciej.
Shipa, i am so excited! this part of the sphere is so inaccessible to normal humans and scientists like us! stay warm and keep writing/ posting us pics :)!
It looks like you’re hanging on to fixed tent poles from “outside” instead of carrying them somewhere. 🙂