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Communications geniuses: Mike “Mountain Dew” Down, Marc Seibert, Mike Miller
By Rafferty Pendery
flight plan
Backseat driving – the science backroom team operations
Posted on July 20th, 2011 by admin
Jenn Biddle - Science backroom
I’m so excited to be officially joining the PLRP team this year as part of the science team. I got excited about astrobiology in graduate school and after my PhD, was a NASA Astrobiology Institute postdoctoral fellow. When I became a professor, I kept looking for ways to stay involved in NASA and astrobiology science. I collaborate with the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Penn State University and now am part of the PLRP team!
I typically do deep sea research, so the PLRP approach of using manned submarines is not too unusual to me. What is unusual is that we’re taking an analog mission approach to the science and exploration – complete with a mobile mission command center. I’ve been really impressed with the amount of infrastructure that the team has had to create in order to do their work, including setting up wifi in remote places and running video feeds across miles. Typically my research done on a ship has communications already on it – we just hop on and do science. Coming to a remote (and beautiful!) site in British Columbia certainly presents challenges.
Today I got my full immersion into PLRP science and headed up the science backroom team for the third dive in Kelly Lake. One disadvantage of a single manned sub is that only one person is seeing and observing things in real time. Maybe they can take a video, but the rest of us might wait hours to see it. That means decisions are slowed and science might be impeded. So this year the team designed a way to have a sub tethered to a cable, sending video feeds to the surface – and then the coms team has been able to shoot video back to the mobile mission command center. What this means is that many of us scientists can sit in comfort and see and hear what the pilot of the sub is observing. That way we can confer on what we are seeing immediately, add extra sets of eyes to a busy pilot and give advice or opinions on what is happening. Really what we did was sit back and go “Cool!” when a lovely microbialite would pop up on the screen.
We additionally got a true mission-feel when we started doing delayed communications. If an astronaut is off of the Earth, it takes a while to talk to them! So even though our sub pilot was only a few kilometers away, we gave ourselves a delay to see how things would go. Not surprisingly, it did seem easier – doesn’t your job go better when your “boss” stops interrupting you? But we’ll see how well it works when we actually want samples. Maybe 10 brains are better than one – maybe not! It’s part of this week’s experiments. My final experiments won’t be done for a while. We are collecting samples from Pavilion and Kelly Lakes to continue to describe the microbial communities that are in the microbialites. My group is specifically interested in the phototrophic (light-harvesting) communities, who we expect are driving the distinct shapes we see in these structures. Our work is in progress, so now updates yet – but watch for later updates as we start to unravel the mysteries of these beautiful and mysterious microbialites!
Written By: Jennifer Biddle
Inside the MMCC
Inside the MMCC
Bill keeping - comunications, MMCC
Darlene Lim (PI) - Inside the MMCC - there are million ideas going on inside her head right now
Piloting DeepWorker: not your everyday commute!
Posted on June 24th, 2009 by Allyson BradyAs the field season draws closer, I think about how lucky I am to be part of the Pavilion Lake project and of all the amazing people and activities that are part of my research. This year will be my second time driving the submersibles at Pavilion and I can’t wait! It’s hard to believe that already a year has gone by since the last field season. We’ve been so busy prepping for the science and how we’re going to use the subs this year that I feel the need to stop and remember what a unique opportunity this is and how much fun it is to actually drive the DeepWorkers! Everything from launch, to navigating our flights plans, and to recovery is done with the support of an amazing team of people that allows the pilots to focus on the science and of course, on our driving!
Driving the submersible is in some ways similar to driving a car, but we usually describe how the subs move through the water as ‘flying’, because you are moving in three dimensions like the pilot of an aircraft. Most of the power and control over speed comes from your feet and foot pedals that let you move forward and back, but they also allow you to move up and down at the same time. Of course, learning to steer with your feet rather than a steering wheel is a different story. One little twist of the foot is all it takes to start heading in a new direction. That is, unless you have small feet like me and then it’s a big twist of the foot before you go anywhere! Fortunately I have comfy slippers that help fill the foot pedals and keep my feet toasty warm in chilly depths of the lake. It can definitely get cold down at the bottom of the lake (about 4 ºC) so wearing several layers of warm clothing is a must if you want to stay comfortable. Unfortunately, sweatshirts are not too much fun when you’re waiting on deck in the middle of hot July day but they’re definitely worth it once you’re in the water. I’d also recommend a hearty breakfast before launch as it’s hard to find good snacks at 200 ft. Our missions tend to run around 2 hours and despite the fact that it may sound like a long time, it’s amazing how quickly time flies. In addition to keeping our eyes open for interesting microbialites or other intriguing finds, we also have to keep track of our navigation, video recording, life support and maintain a narration of the environment around us. But it’s very easy to simply get caught up in the wonder of being surrounded by fields of microbialites.
We really are lucky to have the opportunity to explore such a unique and interesting environment. There are so many exciting things to see that I’m always disappointed when the dive is over and it’s time to return to the surface. So with only two more weeks to go, my slippers are packed and I’m ready to fly!
~ Allyson