US Navy to Conduct Mission at NURC showcasing Underwater Breathing Apparatus
6/6/2006 9:28:15 AM
E-Mail | Print
By Walter Zaykowski, Marketing and Communications Intern
Wilmington, N.C. - On June 6 the NOAA Undersea Research Center (NURC)/ University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) will begin work on a collaborative effort with the Navy's Specialized Research Diving Detachment (SRDD) on two separate five day missions. Both missions are Aquarius underwater saturation missions in Key Largo, Florida, and the Navy will be utilizing Underwater Breathing Apparatus (UBA), also known as rebreathers, for these aquanaut excursions. NURC will be observing the use of the rebreathers and the possibility of using them effectively both for their own needs and even further into the private sector.
The Navy used rebreathers from seafloor habitats in the 1960s during the Sealab Project, and continues to dive UBAs routinely today. Since then, open circuit scuba has been the preferred method for underwater habitat excursions in the private sector. Recently there has been a renewed interest in rebreathers, sparked by a joint NOAA Undersea Research Program (NURP)/Smithsonian Institute Advanced Scientific Diving Workshop conducted in February 2006. Marine biologists in particular are interested in the benefit of rebreathers because they emit little to no bubbles, allowing them to study fish more closely.
Craig Cooper, the Florida Operations Director who will be a part of the dive team said that there is benefit for the NURC/UNCW Aquarius project with this mission because researchers and team members will get to witness firsthand what it is like to use and maintain the rebreathers from Aquarius. Several aspects have kept rebreathers from becoming prominent in the private sector, they are 10 times more expensive than open circuit scuba, and the time intensive labor needed for both pre-dive and post-dive maintenance has made it difficult for rebreathers to be effectively used by organizations other then by the military. Because of their extensive experience with rebreathers, the Navy will be demonstrating to NURC/UNCW the effectiveness of rebreathers diving from an underwater habitat.
During the mission, it is the hope of NURC/UNCW to assess the efficiency of maintenance procedures of rebreathers, both during planned servicing checks before and after missions, as well as unscheduled repairs during the mission itself. NURC will also be comparing bottom times allowable between the rebreathers vice open circuit scuba. The logistics of supplying CO2 absorbent, O2, and diluent gases for consumption by the rebreathers will also be assessed. Expedition Journals and a live web camera feed will be available throughout the mission on the Aquarius website, www.uncw.edu/aquarius.
Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is operated by the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The underwater habitat is used by marine scientists to study coral reefs and our coastal ocean, the U.S. Navy as a diving training and development facility, and NASA as a space analog for working and training under conditions that are similar to many of the challenges faced in outer space. Project summaries of this and previous missions are available on the Aquarius website (www.uncw.edu/aquarius). The unique design of Aquarius allows "aquanauts" to live and work on the seafloor for extended periods using a special technique called saturation diving. This dramatically increases the time divers can spend working in the ocean depths and provides more convenient, on-site access to science equipment and computers. The lab has advanced communication capabilities from the seafloor with broadband transmission capabilities to the Internet. The system has also proven to be extremely safe, with no serious injuries over its 19 year history.
For more information on Aquarius contact:
Otto Rutten, Associate Director
Phone: (305) 451-0233
Email: rutteno@juno.com
Craig Cooper, Operations Director
Phone: (305) 451-0233 (Ext 212)
Email: craigbc@juno.com
|
