Over the past few days, much progress has been made.

The new door latch has been installed and works fabulously!

Over the last week or so I have also been working to get the PoD’s water system installed. This will be needed to supply the PoD’s human and animal inhabitants with life-giving water during outreach events -especially multi-day events – and allow the humans to grab a shower after the end of a long day of bringing nature and science knowledge to the masses 🙂 The mass of the 25 gallons (200 lbs) of water in the two tanks (the 3rd is the water heater) will also serve as a ballast system to help counter-balance the added mass in the solar-electronics cabinet.

Step one: Find a place to install the new water tank – this looks like a good location.

Step two: move the water pump to a new location.

Step Three: replace old water pipes with new PEX water pipes.

…and even more new pipes. In the next photo, you can see how all the various water pipes connect the two tanks allowing them to balance the water supply between the two tanks. The off-white upper tank pictured in this image is also where the water filler is located – its fill hatch is on the outside of the vehicle at the end of the white PVC tube on top of the tank. Also in this photo, you can see the new 50 Amp shore power connection cable coiled on the bottom right of the image.

We also installed the new water filler hatch – but we first had to make a larger hole. We made the new hatch hole using an existing hole – the old 12-volt battery off-gassing hole – a bit larger to accommodate the new fill point.

This is what the old battery vent port looked like before we modified it.

Marking the new hole…

Cutting the new hole…

The new water filler port installed.

We also installed a new shore power cord port after the original unit suffered a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) while I was attempting to open it one cold day in February – the plastic was old and brittle and just fell apart in my hands. Hopefully, this new one will serve us for many years.

Back to the water system.

After the pump and all the pipes were in place, we then installed the new 9-gallon water tank.

The system is not yet connected and tested since we are missing a few small water line adapters that we could not source locally. They should arrive later this week and will complete the final connections that will make the new water system complete. If you look closely in this image and to the left of the center you will see where the adapters are needed – where the blue water line ends in a brass 90-degree elbow fitting – it is at this location where we need to have a unique small adapter to connect the water line to the tank. We also need to install a system drain valve – it will go in the space above the brass elbow I just mentioned and will have an outlet tube that passes through the RV’s floor allowing the system to be fully drained in the event of cold weather.

We also installed a clean-out port (the circular white port in the top of the original water tank in the below photo) as well as the new filler line between the tank and the externally mounted gravity fill port we mentioned earlier. The clear hose on the right is part of the water system’s air venting system.

We filled some old gas line and drain holes with body putty then drilled some huge holes through the floor of the RV and into the frame and then preliminarily installed the raised and strengthened sub-floor in the soon-to-be solar-electronics cabinet. It is not bolted in place just yet – we still need to sand and paint the fiberglass walls, let them dry, then we will be able to bolt it all together – but to do that, we need warmer weather…

We installed an external weather-proof heavy-duty outlet. This will be used to power the presentation monitor as well as the microscope station and Level 1 EVSE (electric car charger).

Lastly, we preliminarily mounted the final two Victron solar storage batteries on their support structure and then compared them to the cardboard analogue we constructed several weeks ago. The cardboard unit is smaller because it was constructed without a frame – but not to worry – the support frame’s measurements were accounted for so all should fit nicely in the new solar-electronics cabinet.

The carport staging area is looking crowded. Hopefully, we will soon be able to start putting all these parts back into the PoD.

A great photo from many years ago. During this week in 2017, I took this photo of the first toad of spring. Note: the First Phase of our classroom solar array is in the process of being constructed in the background 🙂

That is where we are in the build at the moment and we hope to have much warmer weather soon – so hopefully, more modifications will happen much faster.

Currently, we are still waiting for word from the welder and trying to find a sheet metal fabricator. Once they work their magic we will be able to install the solar modules and continue with the installation of further components. Warmer weather in the early spring will be most helpful and much will happen fast so please subscribe and follow this blog for more updates on this unique project!

We hope to have the ENP NaSA PoD in service on or before Earth Day 2022!

Stay tuned – there is much more to come.

Please subscribe and follow this blog for more updates.

This is an amazing project that will serve to educate and inspire all the curiosity seekers it meets. But to do this thing right – we do still need your support. If you choose to assist us in making this project a reality, this unique mobile classroom will greatly benefit the nature and wildlife conservation, science, and renewable energy awareness education of all of our outreach program participants in the WNC region as well as our wonderful students at Trails Carolina and Trails Momentum who will all greatly benefit from the wonders it will contain while they are in the field on expedition. 

 Please consider supporting this project via the donate link on our website or our GoFundMe page:   www.gofundme.com/lets-build-a-mobile-outreach-classroom

The construction and use of this unique mobile classroom will be documented on this blog, our end-of-year newsletter, and soon on our YouTube channel.  

 The ENP NaSA PoD and the Mighty Bolt EV (our primary outreach vehicle) are owned by ENP and used primarily as the ENP company outreach vehicle and mobile outreach classroom.  They will be charged and fueled primarily with cleanly generated electricity provided by the ENP/Trails student-built classroom solar array and NaSA PoD’s rooftop solar array. They will serve as outstanding teaching tools for our Trails students, ENP outreach program participants, and everyone we meet via our outreach programs.

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