Mission Day 3
This being a test and evaluation mission, we wanted to test the full potential of the Inspiration rebreather and the software changes that so far, have made this possible. This meant diving our 6 hour excursion table and determining the canister duration under good conditions (warm water, light to moderate work pace) and assessing the average gas consumption. Without going into too much detail and risk boring those of you reading this, these are the basics of what we wanted to do.
Dive a partial pressure of oxygen (PPO2) depth equivalent or better than air (.90 in this case)
Take advantage of Aquarius excursion table of 95 fsw for 360 minutes (6 hours) PPO2 of .82
Stay within the NOAA oxygen toxicity units tables for single exposure at .90 of 6 hours
Safely dive CO2 canister (fresh fill) based on the on board temperature stick icon
Start with full oxygen cylinder and full diluent cylinder
Determine operational risk management steps (i.e. bailout cylinders etc….)
And the results:
We dove a PPO2 range of .70 – .90 to a max depth of 90 fsw for a total of 360 minutes or 6 hours. It was an extremely successful dive! Everything came together… we’ve proven we can dive a commercial rebreather from Ambient Pressure Diving (The Inspiration) staying within established saturation and oxygen toxicity tables for 360 minutes or 6 hours straight without refilling oxygen or diluent cylinders. A very important note to make is that the CO2 absorbent was fresh and unused, the temperature stick provided a guide as to duration of absorbent based on the exothermic reaction and a light to moderate work pace.
Once again… we showed today that we can safely dive the Inspiration out of Aquarius and saturation. And it is all documented for perpetuity. Scientists and NASA Astronauts can benefit from this technology in many ways. For scientists, time lost filling tanks is now gained doing science and the silent nature of the rebreather makes it advantageous for marine life studies. NASA Astronauts can also gain time training rather than filling tanks and have the added analog of a closed circuit life support system on their back with a full face mask and communications.
In closing, people that know me know how passionate and loyal I am about my work here at Aquarius. While I helped make this mission happen, in reality there was so much involved in putting this together, no one person could have thought of everything. So it is with great pride and pleasure that I thank first and foremost our DIVE LOCKER at Aquarius. Without them this could not have been possible.
Special thanks to:
Craig Cooper,Otto Rutten, Jim Buckley, Ellen Prager, James Talacek, Mark Hulsbeck, Dominic Landucci, Justin Brown, Larry Ward, Nate Bender, Tim Roberts and Ryan LaPette. Also, LT Johnston US Navy DMO.
A personal thanks goes out to my dive buddies at depth.
Tim Gallagher, Dewey Smith, Warren Miller (Inspiration instructor) and Doug Arnberg (Inspiration instructors)
Honorable mentions:
Martin Parker (Managing Director Ambient Pressure Diving)
Nigel Hester (Software specialist Ambient Pressure Diving)
David Burroughs (Hollis Industries for providing the MK-50 Full Face Mask with heads up display)
Jim Standing (Fourth Element wet suits for providing me with a wet suit that kept me warm for 6 hours / Thanks Jim)
Respectfully,
Roger Garcia
Diving Safety Officer / CHT
NOAA Undersea Research Center / Aquarius
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