Karen's Daily Blog

Manned/Unmanned

First, they talked on the phone. What can you see out your window from your submarine at the bottom of the ocean? What can you see out your window from your space station orbiting the Earth? And then astronaut Suni Williams came down from the International Space Station in a ship called Atlantis, and former Extreme scientist Tim Shank, of WHOI, came up from his Alvin dive to the ocean floor to a ship called Atlantis. 

Maybe you’ve realized that the space shuttles are named after ships that explored the ocean in an effort to make a connection between the pioneering spirit of space and sea explorers. As with space exploration, those who explore the sea often discuss whether it’s necessary for people to go there, rather than sending robots.

What sort of robots? Consider the Mars Pathfinder. Consider Voyager II, which has flown out of our solar system, pausing only to turn its cameras for one backward look at Earth. And consider Jason II, the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) which does many of the same jobs as Alvin does, but doesn’t carry people.  

Jonathan Howland, a WHOI engineer who works on Jason II, is aboard Atlantis for this trip in order to gain experience with the operations associated with Alvin. He is well-acquainted with the discussion of when, why, and whether it’s important to send people into space -- or the sea.

Alvin’s sail with Bruce Strickrott’s shoes waiting for him.  Yes, it’s a manned submersible.

 “One factor is risk,” he says. “Putting an ROV over the side of the ship is risky. In the submarine you put three people under the water. But today’s dive is #4480.  4,480 successful dives is a really good record. So far we’ve addressed those dangers successfully.” 

Does the danger of a manned dive add to the interest the public has in it? Maybe. But that’s only part of people’s interest in Alvin dives. They put themselves in the shoes (well, actually you don’t wear your shoes inside Alvin) of Alvin observers as they climb down the ladder through the sail into the personnel sphere, lift into the air along with the A-frame, bob on the surface, then begin the slow descent through sunlit waters. 

The green at the top of the funnel fades to blue, then black, as the sub falls. Then the light show begins as constellations of bioluminescent creatures rain upwards, streaming past the portholes. Before long, the sub falls so deep the show fades to glimmers, then disappears. A few meters before the ocean floor, the pilot turns on the external lights and the observers kneel at their portholes to help him spot the bottom. Alvin observers don’t get tired of telling their stories -- and listeners are intrigued . . . envious . . . and they become excited about what the scientists are doing down there.

They’re driving here and there, getting the lay of the land, taking measurements of temperature and flow, making observations, gathering samples. They’re looking around.

Jason II can do all those things, too, of course. It’s equipped with wonderful cameras that can be monitored in real time by people off and on the ship that tends it (and the van it’s controlled from, which can be transported from ship to ship, making Jason II a flexible traveler that can go where it’s needed). 

Although experts operate the remote controls most of the time, scientists can drive it, too -- from ship or land. Anyone can, really; even kids have driven Jason II around the seafloor, choosing the direction it moves or “looks” with its cameras. Because the cameras transmit Jason II’s movements in real time, scientists can be immediately involved in sample selection and other decisions made on the bottom.

Jonathan explains, “With the ROV everyone is seeing the same thing. If we don’t know what we’re looking at, we can say, ‘Go get Fred. Wake him up and tell him what we’re seeing, get his opinion.’ Or we can call up an expert on shore.”

It’s easy to see why people also want to go there for real, whether it’s space or the seafloor. Dan Fornari, a WHOI marine geologist who heads the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute, feels that manned dives are vital for training students and for getting people engaged in ocean science, but there is much more: a person can interpret his or her observations more readily, carefully, and intuitively on site than remotely.

“In the ocean, everything is moving. It’s very complex,” he says.

That said, there are jobs that need doing in the deep sea that you wouldn’t want to do in a manned vehicle, such as mapping. ABE, the Autonomous Benthic Explorer, is the robot for that job. Jonathan Howland says, “Four weeks at a time doing a towed sonar survey, dragging it behind the ship at the rate half a knot . . .” In other words: boring. Of course the outcome is anything but boring, but the process is best done without the constant involvement of people. 

Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a sub: Alvin Pilot-in-Training Korey Verhein, Dr. Eric Wommack (who brought a photo of his family along) and Expedition Leader and Chief Pilot Bruce Strickrott

 

Andy Bowen, head of the Deep Submergence Laboratory, says, “Prior to ABE we looked at the seafloor with a human-occupied vehicle or remotely operated vehicle. It was like looking at the Grand Canyon floor with a flashlight.”

The answer, of course, is that we need all of these tools to gather all of the information that we need about the ocean. Science needs the big-picture point of view and detailed surveying ABE provides. The science world needs the accessibility, interaction, and flexibility that Jason II offers. And scientists need to travel to the ocean floor in manned submersibles like Alvin in order to truly comprehend what’s going on down there.

“I find it difficult to imagine what kind of instrument should have been on the Beagle instead of Charles Darwin.” – Allyn Vine

Today's Extreme Blogger:
Bekki Helton

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, that great U.S. holiday where we stuff ourselves with mashed potatoes, turkey and pumpkin pie. The football game is turned on, and people relax in a comfy spot, and let the day just go by. But when you are on a research vessel, doing vital scientific work and have deadlines to meet, the holiday relaxation doesn’t happen. We were very lucky that our kitchen staff made fabulous mashed potatoes, turkey ,and yes, even pumpkin pie for dinner. But there was no time for football, fun, and relaxation. Yet today, sixteen of us out here also took time for a very special event that was taking place in two locations for one cause. 

Each year I participate in the annual Thanksgiving Day Run/Walk for Multiple Sclerosis in Wilmington, Delaware. I also serve as the team captain for the team Twisted Helixes for the annual MS Walk earlier in the year. But the Thanksgiving Day walk was just me; it was my private time to walk for my friend Betty. Betty and I have been friends for countless years, and for much of this time I had known she had MS, but had never seen the full effects.

One winter holiday I went back to Michigan to stay with her and her husband for a few weeks. It was during that time that I saw Betty get pretty sick. It was painful to watch, and even worse, I felt utterly useless and helpless to stop the pain she was experiencing.  When I got back to Delaware, I searched for something, some way to make me feel like I could help. That's when I started participating in the walks. I’ve now been doing this for over five years, every year.

But this year's Thanksgiving Day walk was going to be a big problem for me.  Since I was scheduled to embark on the Extreme cruise from Nov 10-30th this year, no Thanksgiving Day walk was going to be possible for me. During a conversation with my boyfriend, Alan Glazer, he simply said, "Why don't you just walk on the ship?" And that's when things began to come together.

I really wanted to do this, so I called the Delaware Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and asked if they minded if I walked out here instead. They were quite thrilled with the idea, and I decided to go ahead and form up the Twisted Helixes team again. I even got one of my former team members (and former Extreme cruise participant) Kurt Williamson to design our t-shirt backs. We divided up the team into the Land Team and the Sea Team. We had three official members on Land and four official members on the Sea Team. We were ready!

Once I got to the ship, I thought I’d ask if anyone would like to join us for the walk day.  It would be difficult since science is the priority out here, and it would require a bit of time away from that work. I put out the request that anyone who wanted to walk with us show up at the bow of the ship one night for our team/group photo. I was so touched, and really moved when I saw not just my little team of four people on the bow, but 16 people, all willing to sacrifice some of their day to help me in this walk event. I was truly moved and am thankful to each one of them.

And so today, Thanksgiving Day back in Delaware, my Land Team stepped off and walked in cold and dreary temperatures, while here on the ship, the Sea Team stepped off next to the Alvin hangar on a crispy and sunny day. We walked upstairs, around exhaust fans, up more stairs, around a paint locker, and up even more stairs. We navigated around chains, around people working, around the zodiac boat and back around to do it all again.  We walked around the steel decks of the RV Atlantis, 4 decks, 15 times for a total time of 1 hour and 6 minutes. I know that typically it takes about 1 hour to walk a 5K, so that’s what I decided to do since we didn’t have a pedometer or measuring tape, and that we did.

It was a very good day, the sun was shining, it was cool, the water was calm and very blue. Some people jumped into the walk part way, others had to duck out due to work obligations. But we still walked, and kept it going for the whole time. One walker, Katrina Twing, told me that she had only planned on walking for about 3 laps, but was so getting into it that she decided to keep going with me. She even did a 16th lap with me to go collect and remove all of my arrows for the walk path. You have no idea how much that meant to me.

When we finished our final lap and came to the end at the Alvin hangar, there were several crew and scientists standing around. They were actually waiting for Alvin to come on deck with their samples, but when they saw us completing the walk, they cheered and clapped for us, making it feel like an appreciated end to the walk. 

So what do I hope to have gained from all this? My biggest hope from all of this is to spread awareness about Multiple Sclerosis. I’m always surprised by the number of people I speak with who know someone or have a family member with MS. It is my prime goal to have as many people know and become aware of MS, and of course raise donations to help the research efforts to find a cure. Learn more here>>

I want to say thank you to all my teammates, all the walkers, and all the supporters who have been so gracious and so wonderful in helping me not only get this walk organized but also make it something wonderful. Thank you, you made Thanksgiving Day one of more thanks than you could have thought possible for many, many people.

From left to right: Extreme 2008 Chief Scientist Craig Cary, Atlantis Captain A.D. Colburn III, Ordinary Seaman Ron Whims, Able-Bodied Seaman Raul Martinez, Katrina Twing (UDel), Kathy Coyne (UDel), Dr. Bekki Helton (UDel), Dr. Shawn Polson (UDel), Lisa Zeigler (Scripps Institute of Oceanography), Lauren Farrar, Alvin Pilot-in-Training Dave Walter, Lee Stanish (University of Colorado at Boulder), Karen Lloyd (University of North Carolina), Shipboard Education Coordinator Karen Romano Young, Dr. Eric Wommack (UDel), Conrad Pilditch (University of Waikato)

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