Ask an Aquanaut:The Ascent
Tomlin Middle School asks: Last Friday the class watched in anticipation as one of the aquanauts talked on the phone and monitored the computers as the others waited for the signal that everything was safe and ready for the crew to exit the Habitat. After the ‘high five’ sign we swithed to the gazeboo cam. We watched the topside crew in full gear await the Habitat crew to exit the wet porch. Our classroom question is this: Does the topside crew helping the Habitat crew share the oxygen masks they have on or does the inside Habitat fully dress in gear to get to topside? All we could see was the topside crew then legs coming from the wetporch area and maybe three people at a time swim to the top. Hopefully this Friday’s pictures will be a little clearer than last week.
Do the inside Habitat crew just use hand pumps with oxygen to make it to the surface or are they sharing with the topside crew? How long does it take to surface from the Habitat?
Tomlin Middle School,
Let me start by saying that your class is very observant and obviously has a good understanding of our operations.
The topside crew (safety & ascent divers) use their own air masks. The aquanauts do not dress in full diving gear. We use small “bail out” bottles. We can do this safely because the topside divers are there to escort the aquanauts to the surface. The ascent takes two minutes.
The Habitat crew was excited to hear that your class watched us inside and then switched camera views to see us leaving Aquarius during the last mission. Depending on the sea conditions we may exit on the Gazebo side again, but possibly on the “Aquarius exterior” camera side. Hopefully on Friday the visibility will be good, so if you are watching you can see us again.
James Talacek
Habitat Technician
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