Explorations | PHAEDRA 2006 | Logs

Mobilization

June 25, 2006

Justin Manley
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration

Most of the WHOI team is now in Greece at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), our hosts and partners. Today and the past several days are consumed preparing the R/V AEGAEO to get underway. Watching an ocean expedition mobilize is always impressive. In this case the number of tools and teams makes it even more exciting. We work in a giant garage we call a high bay (because it has tall doors that allow large objects like ocean buoys in and out). In one half the engineers assemble the SeaBed Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The AUV was shipped from the US to Greece in crates about 10 feet long, three feet wide and three feet tall. All the pieces come out and are assembled, like a really expensive lego kit. Only this kit has wires, lots of them. Each underwater connector must be carefully inspected, O-rings (special parts of the watertight seals) must be inserted and then the connections must be seated firmly together. Subsystems must be tested and installed, and then finally the complete system must be tested. It
is a lot of work but it does allow these important tools to be shipped around the world for deployment on any ship of opportunity.

Meanwhile in the other side of the high bay the Greek human occupied vehicle (HOV) called Thetis is being outfitted. Modifications to the vehicle are made as WHOI oceanographic instruments and advanced navigation systems are integrated with the vehicle. This is especially interesting because as a safety certified vehicle intended to carry human lives, all engineering changes must meet the rules of the “classification” society. This society is a review group that examines technical changes made to the vehicle to ensure the modifications do not compromise the safety of the system. Since our team is made up of Greeks and Americans, we’re being especially careful with to communicate clearly with each other. Fortunately our Greek hosts speak excellent English, because we don’t yet speak Greek. For me, Greek is a hard language and I still struggle to pronounce “efcharisto,” or thank you. But I try to offer my thanks as much as I can. Working with international partners is a pleasure, but can be demanding; being comfortably polite make long hours easier.

Team meetings also take place with the HCMR scientists and managers to plan the areas of the ocean we will explore. A preliminary plan of action has been developed. We have a limited number of ship days and lots of technical and scientific objectives. That makes it compicated to create a balanced plan that maximizes the investment of research funds and ship days. I won’t spoil following logs by discussing the plan we created, but I will say that sitting around a table with nearly a dozen talented engineers and scientists from Greece and the United States was great fun. We even learned that one of the Greek marine chemists completed her post-doctoral research at WHOI. It is a very big ocean, but a small world.

As an engineer and technology lead for NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration, I am personally most excited about the technology coming together. The special navigation systems being installed on Thetis will make it one of the most precisely navigated HOVs in the world. I am sure HCMR would like to see the equipment and special software left behind after this cruise, but it will have to go back to the U.S. for further development. These tools should allow the scientists to know where the HOV is to a high degree of accuracy in a geo-referenced system. This means that they will know where the HOV is over the surface of the planet, not just relative to other features that might be moving (like the water itself). High quality navigation like this is rare, and watching the care that goes into the equipment and engineering is impressive. If GPS navigation signals could reach underwater we would just use that ubiquitous system. But since GPS radio waves can’t travel underwater, we use the new navigation tools developed for ocean science by our engineers.

Another highlight that occurred during cruise preparations was the visit of a group of Greek school children. They did not stay long and I did not understand anything they, or their teacher, said but the smiles on their faces said it all. I could even tell by the tone of their voices that their questions expressed a genuine interest in our work exploring the sea. Of course with the lovely Mediterranean next door it is easy to see why ancient mariners took to the seas. If it were not for the security fence around the HCMR it would be all too easy for us to go take a swim whenever we needed a break. However as any good engineer will tell you, seawater and electronics do NOT mix, so we can’t come back to the high bay with wet hair. One misplaced drop could damage an important circuit. So we must focus on the work and hope we get a chance for a swim before the ship sails.

By tonight we will be finished assembling, testing and calibrating the sophisticated tools we will take to sea, and embark on the beginning of our 10 day research cruise to explore the mysteries of the Aegean Sea. As a good friend of mine once said, onward and downward . . .

 

(top)

---

Sign up for the Ocean Explorer E-mail Update List.