Drowning Romeo

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First of all, despite what this blog site might list above, Antarctica is not a part of South America. It is its own continent with land underneath all of its ice and mountains. Just thought I should make that correction.

This morning I pulled up Romeo from dive hut #8 out on the sea ice, where it had been resting on the sea floor, 80 feet below. Ben the Antarctic Scout, helped me with some wiring, logistics, and this pressure test before leaving for New Harbor today. He and I drove out to Hut 8 lst night around 9:30 after I received some modified parts from Mike in the McMurdo Machine Shop. Since Ben is THE Boyscout, he was in charge of all of the knots and we rigged ROMEO to the dive line. We attached 60 extra pounds of weight since there is no payload inside the equipment while pressure testing. Well this meant that the unit weighted in at 120lbs. This was way more weight than was necessary. The enclosure and geriatric looking stand weigh 60 lbs without the internal payload. So the system with full batteries is likely about 10lbs negative in water. This is good.

Ben and I lowered the enclosure into the water after scooping out most of the slush in the hole and then let out the line until we touched bottom. The enclosure stayed there for 15 minutes, at which point I pulled it up and had a quick look to check for leaks. Everything looked fine so we lowered it back down and it spent the night down there.

Bob and I took the Dive Locker Pisten Bully ( a tracked vehicle) down to Hut 8 this morning to pull my camera out and to pressure test a small housing he has for his R.O.V. I pulledd Romeo up and we somehow managed to get it out of the hole. Everything went perfectly and the electronics are ready to be installed in the enclosure and taken out to New Harbor for deployment

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Photos

ROMEO in Dive Hut
ROMEO enclosure before pressure test.

ROMEO cooling off
This is a photo of the enclosure outside of Hut 8. I opened it up to allow cold dry air inside, the air in the Crary Lab is artificially adjusted to a humidity to 20%. That moisture likes to condense and freeze inside the camera. The cold dry air allows me to test romeo without dessicant.

ROMEO after pressure test
ROMEO on the surface after 12 hours at 80 feet.

ROMEO internal payload
A view of the electronics I designed that go inside the enclosure.

Comments

[THE Boyscout]

Sweet
I was just google-stalking you and found this page...good times.