29. May 2009

As of 29th of July 2009, 17:02, the Aouda On-Board Data Handling System is alive: in a first OBDH integration session Klaus Bickert, the team leader of the Aouda OBDH group (assisted by Sebastian Sams (Aouda OBDH), Christoph Lindner (HTL Anichstrasse) and Aouda project manager Gernot Groemer) was able to obtain the first sign-of-life from the central processor, a Toradex Robin Z510 based on Intel Atom Z510 1.1GHz.

"As small as it may seem (getting a mainboard to work)" Gernot Groemers stated, "this is nevertheless a pivotal moment in the development of Aouda. Besides a few voltage glitches and an initial problem with the memory card reader the first test went pretty smooth. We are fairly excited to finally see the functional processor for our prototype suit. Metaphorically speaking, this could be interpreted as the first "Brain wave" of Aouda - so let's hope for a smooth birth during the comissioning between 1.-3. July 2009 in Kramsach in a marble pit resembling the rocky surface of Mars."

If all things work out as planned, there will be a live coverage via Webcast directly from the test site during the first steps of the spacesuit simulator onWednesday, July 7th around 10 or 11 a.m..