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*D—A076 as. SATTELSE M(MORIAL INST COLUMBUS OHIO COIjIMSUS ~AB5 Pm sf0 TLCHNICAL ASSISTANCL IN CONN (CTION WITH TrKTITE I TO DFPARTMENTntlC(U) AliS 59 D £ LOKINS . * I COYLE N0001*—7D—C—O072 UNCLASSIFILD Ii i ’ ~~~ul.- L __ UL~ U~~~iI ~~~l_ __ u ci_U’ _ _ U _ _ F ‘ O L~ ~2I I~2.5 I . L ~~~~ _ _ _ ~~ 112.2 LI ~ ~III~ IIII~ IDA’ .25 IIIII~ •~ pio~ o MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TI~ST CHART NAtIONAL BUREAU OF SIANIJARDS 196 1 A iEVEJ4~ RESEARCH REPORT I H H - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~‘I’ I - ~ -. ------.- ~~ . k O’ L~ F~ ,.. . ~ .~~~~~ ~~J~’~E; ~J.~~UT~Oi1 t~~ •1 BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTIT UTE ‘~ i COLUMBUS LABORATORIES 1,,9 P~~~ . . ~ 4 • ~ I ~i _ _ _ u-i ... _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ , ... . . ~~~~~~~~ I I I ~ , .~~~.—*- - I I , I - I I I I: ‘1 . . . THE COLUMBUS LABORATORIES of BatteUe Memorial Institute compnse the original research center of an international organization devoted to research. The Institute is frequently desenbed as a “bridge” between science and industry — a role it has performed in more than 91) countries. As an independent research rnstitute, it conducts research encompassing virtually all facets of science and its application. It also undertakes programs in fundamental research and education. Battelle-Columbus — with its staff of 3,000 — serves industry and government through contract research. It pursues: I • research embracing the physical and life sciences, engineering, and selected social sciences • design and development of materials, products, processes, and systems I • information analysis, socioeconomic and technical economic studies, and manage. meid planning research. 505 KING AV ENUE . COLUMBUS , OHIO 43 201 I _- ~~ -__ ~~~~_. . ~-~~____. ~- . . - . .- -——. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ — ~! ~~~~~~~ i~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . — ~~UMMARY REP~~~r,~ I ( _ _ _ F on £~~~NECTiON~~~ TH EKTITE I — to DEPARTME 1~T OF THE ~~~~VY. 1 August 20 , 1969 1 7~~~~~~~~~~~~~ kins /Coy1e ~~7::~~~:~ [ ~ I I r BATTELLE MEMOR IAL INSTITUTE ,‘ Columbus Laboratories 505 King Avenue I Columbus, Ohio 43201 I F ,.~~~. ... _ _ _ _ _ _____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -- - - -‘~~~H~~j~~ .~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ H -. - . n — - - -_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TABLE OF CONTENTS I P~g! INT RODUCTION I CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS 2 RECOMMENDATIONS 3 L Habitat Systems 4 I Structure and Interior Design 4 Environmental-Control System 4 Thermal-Control System . • Scuba Charging, Low-Pressure Air , and Emergency Air Sy stems s j Plumbing and Sanitary System 5 I Communications System 6 Electrical System . . . . , 6 F General Recommendations • . . . . . . . . . . 6 Habitat interfaces . . , 6 Habitat Support Equipment 7 I Aquanaut Support Equipment 7 Habitat-Deployment Procedure 8 - Aquanaut Training 8 Logistics and Facilities for Support Personnel 8 HARDWARE EVALUATION . , . , 8 Habitat Systems . . . . • • • , • • 9 I Structure and Interior Design . . , . . . . . . . . . . 9 I. Environmental-Control System (ECS) . , , . , , • , 11 Thermal-Control System , • 14 I Scuba-Charging, Low-Pressure Air , and Emergency Air - Systems . . • • • • • . . . 17 Plumbing and Sanitary System . . . . . 17 [ Communication System 17 • Electrical System . . . . , 19 1- Habitat Int erfaces and Connected Equipment . . . . . 19 I Umbilicals . . , 20 * Way Stations and Navigation Markers 20 r Built-in-Breathing (BIB) System . 20 Hookah System . . . . . • . . . . 20 Aquasonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Dumbwaiter System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Habitat Support Equipment . . . . . . . . , . . . . , . . 24 Aquanaut Support Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , 24 I Lobster Detection and Tagging Devices 24 I Plankton Standpipe . 26 Coring Tools . . . 26 Diving Equipment , . . . 29 Mini Sub . • • • • • • , • • • , • , , • 29 I BAT T~~LLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LAB Q~~ATO~~IES —~~s%s$.• ~~~~ - — — —~_--*‘~~~~~~ - ~~-, -t•,~ ,,’4 ~ - [ ~~~ / -. _ _ _ _ _ I I TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page PROCEDtJRES EVALUATION . . . . . . 31 J Habitat Deployment . . . . , . . . . . . . . . 31 Buoyancy and Stability . 31 Launch-Site Procedure . . • • . . • • . • • , 31 Emplacement Site Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Deployment-Procedure Evaluation. . • • Aquanaut Training . . . . . . • , . . . 37 Logistics and Facilities for Support Personnel 39 SU’IvIl\’I.ARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 APPENDIX - . ENGINEERING DEBRIEFING . . . $ . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Cross-Section View of Tektite I Habitat . . . . . . . . . 10 Figure 2. Graphs of CO2 Scrubbing Until Failure of the Mass Spect rometer • 13 Figure 3. Comparison Between the EDU and the ECS Scrubbers . , . . • 15 Figure 4. Jack Brown Full-Face Mask With Communications . . . . . . 21 Figure 5. Dumbwaiter-System Concept , . . . . . . . , . . . 23 Figure 6. Support Barge and Crane Barge With Decompression Complex , . 25 Figure 7. Lobster Detecting and Tagging Device . $ , . . . • • . . 27 Figure 8. Coring Tools . $ . . . . , . , 28 Figure 9. Muu Sub . . . . . . . . , . . $ , . . 30 Figure 10. Habitat at Launch Site . • . . . . . . . . . . 32 Figure 11. Pale Tender. in Crow ’s Nest . . . . . . . . . . 34 Figure 12. Floating Habitat. . . . . $ . . $ . . . . 35 Figure 13. Ballasting Habitat Using Trammi e Pipe . . . . . $ . . . . 36 Figure 14. Training Schedule . . $ . . . . . . . . . . 38 IJIST OF TABL.ES Table t . Baralyme Analysis. . . . , . . $ . . . , , . $ . $ 14 ~~~~‘ SATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLW BUS LASO~~ATO~~IES r~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ _ _ _ _ - I I SUMMARY REPORT T~~J-~ ~~~ I I TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN CONNECTION WITH TEKTITE I — I I ~~~~~~~ • 1 I to .~~ - Av~~ .r ; :- . I DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY ~ . . ~- ~ D~st August 20 , 1969 INTRODUC TION I Tektite I was a cooperative program between government agencie s and industry conducted to determine the capability of a small group of men to satisfactorily perform a scientific research mission while living isolated on the ocean floor for a long period of time. The program was cosponsored by the Navy, National A eronautics and Space I Administration, and the Depa rtment of Interior, with participation by the U. S. Coast Guard. The prime contractor was the General Electric Company, which furnished the i undersea habitat and assisted in program planning and scientific-mission coordination. I Battelle-Columbus participated in the program under Navy/Industry Cooperative Resea rch and Development Agreement Number R-485 -91. Battelle - Columbus re spon- I sibilities in Tektite were to: ( 1) Provide technical and engineering assistance to the Office of Naval I Research (2) Coordinate acquisition and deployment of a decompression complex (3) Review habitat systems and subsystems to assist in assuring prope r I pe rformance (4) Monitor habitat systems and subsystems on site to provide an un- biased evaluation (5) Provide ha rdware integration and program planning support 1 (6) Supply the hookali system, two types of coring tools , and built-in breathing (BIB) equipment for habitat use 1 (7) Coordinate on-site aquanaut training I (8) Rebuild , modify and test the dated two-man wet submersible (mini sub) to be used by the aquanauts on excursions from the habitat SATT EL LE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LASORA TO~~IES -: .~iI - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ — - . ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... I ~~~~~~~~ ~ -‘ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W~~~~~ - . 2 ( 9) Provide diving support during the construction and habitat de- ployment phase of the program and during the research studies of the three standby aquanauts perfor med outside their excursion limits. (10) Assist with responsibilities associated with the control van and support equipment. ektite I was the first undersea program to be undertaken by a group of Federal agencies , in cooperation with private industry. Four marine scientists from the Department of the Interior lived for a period of 60 days , beg inning February 15, 1969 , in the Tektite I habitat on the ocean floor at a depth of about 50 feet. During this time the aquanauts breathed a nitrogen/oxygen gas mixture where the percentage of oxygen by volume was approximately equivalent to that at the surface. The site for this pioneering saturation dive was Great Lameshur Bay, St. John , Virg in Island s, chosen for its favorable climate, clear waters , and abundant undersea plant and animal life . The aquanauts lived in a marine laboratory, both on the ocean floor and in the habi- tat working spaces. This environment provided an unprecedented opportunity for inti- mate long -term marine investigations. While the scientists were conducting their underwater research mission, they were continuously observed by Navy and NASA behavioral and biomedical teams. Very corn- plete psychological and physiological data were obtained identif ying man ’ s reactions to a long-term mission perfo rmed in an isolated , ho stile environment common to both undersea and manned space missions. This report deal s mainly with problem areas uncovered during the mission with habitat and support equipment hardware as well as with the evaluation of certain proce- dural items. No attempt has been made to describe the operation and functions of all the equipment discussed; this description has been left to those with original and ultimate responsibility in each area. , Only the problem areas and possible improvements for fu- ture missions, which ahould~~e familiar to those intimately associated with the program , are expounded herein. Althou’k~ the remarks are directed specifically toward th e Tektite I program, they also pe’~~ain to typical areas for improvement in equipment for other experiments of this type. CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS ( 1) Four scientist/divers can be autonomous and perform useful research for 60 continuous days at a 50-foot depth on N2O2 mix- - - ture, can be safely decompressed , and will exhibit no adverse physiological or psychological problems. (2) The total aquanaut time on the bottom was divided into the following •1 general areas, with each area assigned an approximate average percentage figure: SA TTELLE MEMONIA L INSTITUT E — COLUMB US LABO~~ATO~~IES -1 ~ I / - I Average Percent of Time I Scientific Work 32 Sleep, Rest, and Relaxation 22 I Recreation 16 Self- Maintenance Activities 16 I Habitat Maintenance and Repair \ 10 I In Transit 4 (3) The scientist/divers spent 432:15 man-hours in\~he water during i the 60-day mission. This represents an average.of 7. 2 man- I hours per day. - (4) The Jack Brown full-face mask with communications was usable I up to 200 feet from the habitat . The mask and communications package were more than adequate and were used more than 41 I diving hours during the mission, about one-tenth of the total I diving time. 1 (5) In situ habitation in strategic ocean locations at reasonable depths I provides effective use of time in diurnally investigating undis- turbed scientific, biological, and geological phenomena over long J periods of time. ( 6) Saturated swimmers, in water with average visibility of 50 to 1 75 feet and between depth limits of 21 to 100 feet , can perform excu r sion dives from the habitat to distances exceeding 1800 feet and retu rn safely. ( 7) The perfo rmance by a number of support scientist/divers of re- search work to no-decompression limits around the perimeter of I aquanaut excu rsion limits significantly adds to the total scientific cove rage of the area. •1 t RECOMMENDATIONS I The recommendations listed are based on a survey of the overall program . Many of the suggestions deal with minor problems, but unless the small problems are recog- I nized at this time, they may become major problems in future programs. The specific suggestions included in this section may be used as typical examples for consideration during retrofit and/or the design of additional habitats. I BATT EL LE MEMORIAL INSTI TUTE — COLUMBUS LABOR A TORIES ii _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i—~~: ~~~~~~~~’ —.- — . - -—- —. ~~~~~ - ~~~~~~~~~~ ~- 4 Habitat Systems St ructure and Interior Design (1 ) A hatch that opens from the cupola into the eng ine room that remains dogged when the cupola is not in use could be in- stalled for safety. If a cupola window were broken the hatch would seat firmly because of higher habitat pressure and pre- vent loss of gas and flooding of the habitat . (2) Storage areas and work spaces could be redesigned to provide more study and laboratory space. (3) Mechanical leveling legs could be installed to level the habitat base . A needle valve installed in the emergency hatch in the crew ’ s quarters could eliminate pressure differential caused by poor leveling and this would allow the emergency hatch to be opened quickly . (Note: Small differential pressures acting on the large areas of hatches can exert large forces in either direction. ) (4) Holes in the base should be screened off to prevent dangerous marine animals from entering the shark cage area. (5) Emergency air bottles coul d be placed under the crew ’s quarters , leaving clear space in the passage under the wet room. ( 6) Prime and paint habitat decks well in advance of mission start to allow complete drying and eliminate peeling and formation of rust. Environmental-Control System (1) The CO 2 scrubbing system should be redesigned to include an efficient canister to prevent channeling, to provide sufficient abso rbent bed capacity, and to inc r ease the dwell time of gas in the abso rbent . (2) The use of Sodasorb or lithium hydroxide as the CO2 absorbent may be considered. (3) The NAS.A mass spectrometer should be analyzed , redesigned , and completely evaluated fo r hyperbaric applications prior to the next mission . (4) To eliminate the effects of layering and heavy gases collection in low point s, adequate exhaust and gas removal should be provided . BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTI TUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ) 1 ~~~~~~~~ .. / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - V I 1 _ _ _ _ _ Thermal-Control System 1.. (1) The seawater switch used to control coolant flow to the corn- - preseor could be made of corrosion-resistant material and be protected by a waterproof container to reduce maintenance time . (2) The problem of dripping condensate water may be eliminated by • installing more insulation on the airflow ducts and drain lines and by more direct routing of heat -exchanger drain line s to the si.lmp. (3) Fuses should be protected from possible condensate formation, which causes failure, by enclosing them in a more tightly sealed fuse box. (4) Soundproof paneling could be installed in the engine room to at- tenuate machinery noise. Scuba Charging, Low-Pressure Air , and Emergency Air Systems ( 1) The scuba-charging panel could be moved and plumbed in a t - more convenient location. (2) Rather than using the emergency air bank to charge scuba tanks, a larger bank of receivers could be installed topside to maintain a constant supply of high-pressure air to the charging station. (3) Low-pressure air lines could be plumbed near the 10-inch trunk to permit easy exit of the hookah hoses. Plumbing and Sanitary System (1) A gooseneck fitting should be installed in the sewer outfall line + - near the toilet discharge to trap sewer gas and eliminate intro- - duction of methane and other ha rmful gases into the habitat at- - mosphere. In addition, an air fitting may be provided on the outfall line to permit the aquanauts to blow out the line to remove I - built-up material. (2) The bilge pump in the wet room could be reoriented to allow the bilge to be pumped dry. In addition , all components known to be vibration sensitive should be locked and/or wired to prevent vibration f ailures. r (3) The inlet to the seawater pump could be screened to eliminate small fish from being sucked into the rotor blade s and possibly • - clogging the pump . I: I BA1 rlu l MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ~ 11 ___________ _____________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - • - - —— ~~~~~~ • - A 6 Communications System (1) The intercom sets in the habitat should be reconditioned or re- placed before the next mission to eliminate speaker noise and feedback. (2 ) Casings for sound-powered phones in the way stations could be redesi gned to keep the phones dry, and operating procedure to receive communication from way stations should be clearly delineated. (3) Underwater TV cameras could be repaired and evaluated before they are brought on the site. It may be possible to provide pan and tilt mechanisms for more effective use of the cameras. (4) The sound-powered phone on the brid ge should be replaced by a Bogeri or equivalent. Electrical 5Tystem ( 1) For future missions, habitat electricity could be grounded at the surface support facilities. (2) The reheater circuit breaker in the crew quarters should be re- placed with a less noisy model and/or be relocated in a more remote area. (3) The clothes dryer could be replaced with a washer/dryer combi- nation for convenience. This change will take up very little additional space. Gene ral Recommendations (1) The aquanaut crew consisting of four aquanaut/scientists could be expanded to include one engineer to assume responsibility for equipment maintenance , habitat resupply, and housekeeping chores , thu s freeing the scientists to conduct their primary research mission. + (2) The habitat could be given a dry run in the shipyard at bottom pressure, not only to check the workability of the systems, but also to help t rain the new aquanaut s befoie the start of a future mission . + Habitat Interfaces (1) The navigation grid system was not used by the aquanauts during the mission and may be eliminated in future programs. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES / SUMMARY REPORT on TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN CONNECTION WITH TEKTITE I to DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY August 20 , 1969 by D. E. Adkins and A. J. Coyle BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE Columbus Laboratories 505 King Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43201 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A ____———--------. - 7~~~-~~ __ +_ ~ _ ~ “. + + •~~.—~-l~t. + / - -WI-- I 7 (2) Provisions could be made on or in the habitat for stowing 200 feet of hookah hose and the masks in a convenient manner. (3) More reliable, longer range, free-swimmer communications are { needed for the next mission. (4) New , noncorrosive transfer pots should be supplied. ( 5) A closed-circuit, shallow-water dumbwaiter system could be desi gned and developed to speed up transfer of supplies. Habitat Suppo rt Equipment (1) Larger capacity pumps could be used to transfer water and diesel fuel to the support facilities. Thi s would significantly reduce transfer time. (2) A critical spare-parts inventory should be established for the crane to eliminate lengthy downtimes due to failures. Aguanaut Support Equipment (I ) Longer range , more accurate pinger/ receiver sets would be useful for underwater lobster research. (2) Additional equipment could be used for studying lobster habit s, including an underwater photocell-light-source movement detec- tor and a phosphorescent grease or paint with a black light for identifying lobsters and landmarks at night. + (3) Development of plankton- sampling equipment should continue. (4) Storage space could be made available~ in the wet room of the habitat for dry storage of the underwater electric coring tool if it is used on future missions. (5) Research could be undertaken to develop a long-duration, semi- closed breathing device capable of lasting 4 hours at 50 feet using a N 202 breathing mixture. (6) Reliable, operational swimmer delivery vehicles could be pro- i. , - vided for aquanaut excursions, which are capable of maint aning 3 to 5 knots for at least 4 hours. ~ F SATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES + U. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + w.,.-’ ~~ - /. . ‘— - 8 Habitat-Deployment Procedure (1) When using the Tektite I habitat for future missions where a Landing Ship Dock must be used for transportation, it is recom- mended that the same emplacement procedure be used. The + LSD does not have sufficient water depth in her launch well to float the habitat out without being mounted on a sinkable barge. (2 ) A more efficient method of habitat ballasting could be incor- porated for future missions. A quanaut Training ( I ) A longer , more extensive training period could be provided for future aquanauts that deals both with the habitat hardware and with aquanaut suppo rt equipment. Logistics and Facilities for Support Personnel (1) For future missions at the Lameshur Bay site, a stable pier could be built at Cabritte Horn Point for use as a support plat- form for habitat suppo rt equipment. The access road could be extended to the tip of the point. (2) For shallow -water missions at sites other than Lameshur Bay, the economics and convenience of using a large vessel such as an APL for surface support , berthing, and messing should be considered. (3) If the base camp at Lameshur Bay is to be used again, improve- ments may include a hot-water heater and improved latrine facilities. + HA RDWARE EVA LUATION Hardware in the Tektite program can be divided conveniently into four main areas: habitat systems, interfaces, habitat support equipment, and aquanaut equipment. Base- + camp machinery will not be discussed In this report; however , the overall concept of the base camp will be dealt with In the section on Procedure Evaluation. A basic objective of the program was that minimum development money would be expended in an attempt to keep costs low. Each habitat system was fabricated with many off-the-shelf components; only the dual-can concept with a crossover tunnel indicated significant change from previous habitat designs. In conjunction with this structure, some of the subsystem routing s had to be different to accommodate standard conditions I BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES Ii ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ . ~~ .~~~~~.— - + / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . - I I 9 in each cabin. In addition, the emplacement environment (shallow ,warrn water) al- lowed further simplification in design , eliminating expensive breathing gas and extensive + insulation and thus further reducing costs. Most of the hardware associated with the prog ram is discussed below , dwelling mainly on equipment problems as an aid in planning future missions. Habitat Sy stems The habitat as a whole provided a comfortable and very livable home for long- duration, shallow-water, satu ration dives ( see Figure 1). As a laboratory it was not + optimum, but adequate. A number of small problems occurred , some caused by human er ror and some by design or equipment faults , most of which required remedial action and some of which caused a large degree of concern. In pointing out problems and faults , it must be borne in mind that the majority of equipment functioned as designed and that the design success of most aspects of the habitat provided major contribution • to the overall success of the program. Structure and Interior Design The basic structural design of the habitat was good. The brightness of the paint clouded somewhat with marine growth over the 60-day duration, but no significant ex- ternal corrosion was noticed, However, paint and primer flaked off the deck in the wet room, allowing rust to form on the exposed steel. This rust and paint falling into the bilge clogged the strainer to the bilge pump and thus restricted water removal. The problem can be eliminated by priming and painting the decks well in advance of mis- sion start. Various comments made by the aquanauts on habitat structure and interior , in- cluding lack of effective laboratory work space and study areas, the attitu4le of the + - structure, holes in the base, and the crossover tunnel, are presented in the Appendix to this report. + The most consistant complaint involved lack of adequate work space and crowded study conditions in the bridge and the wet room. Since the habitat cannot be made larger without excessive expenditure, two avenues are open. First, storage areas and work spaces may be redesigned so that seldom-used supplies are stored in remote areas (i. e., in tanks below the crew ’s quarters) and seldom-used cabinets are ~liminated. The resulting space may be used for separate work spaces. Second, a separate chamber (garage) could be constructed to provide wet laboratory work space having vented hoods or absorbents for use of toxic research chemicals as well as to provide a service area for charging and maintaining an excursion submersible. I BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORAT ORIES - + - --~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ + -. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~ ~~~- 10 FIGURE 1. CROSS-SECTION VIE W OF TEKTITE I HA BITAT BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES “ I / ; ~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I 11 It was noticed that water collected in puddles behind the sinks in both the engine room and the wet room and the cabinet doors swung open in the same sloping direction • both in the crew ’ s qua rters and in the wet room. It may be that the habitat was not level on the ocean bottom. Even though the bottom was leveled by the Seabees prior to em- • placement, over the 74-day time the habitat was on the bottom, the habitat may have + settled. This is not particularly important to habitation; however , if the emergency hatch in the crew ’s quarters is only 1/2 foot higher than the hatch in the wet room, a force of about 450 pounds is necessary to overcome the pressure on the emergency • hatch. Of course the reverse could occur too. Fortunately, it was not necessary to use this hatch. Mechanical leveling legs could be installed to level the habitat and an internal needle valve in the escape hatch could quickly equalize any other pressure differentials. Holes in the base of the structure should be either screened off or welded shut to prevent dangerous marine animals from entering the shark cage area. One moray was encounte red in the trunk and was dispatched. Others were seen entering through these holes. It was est imated that, many times, moray. lurked among the emergency bottles + stored in the trunk. In addition to covering the access holes , the emergency bottles could be moved and plumbed for use in the area under the crew ’ s quarters , leaving clear space in the passage under the wet room. The crossover tunnel held up well as a structural Item. The four pinhole leaks noticed In the beginning of the mission gave no trouble. However these should be re- paired for future missions. In addition , inconvenience in using the tunnel was noted. The occupants must duck walk or crawl through the tunnel many times a day. Since , functionally, it proved effective, the problem of crossing is a matter for personal adaptation. The cupola was seldom used as an observation station because of poor visibility condition.. If the water were clearer or if a sonar were available for signature studies, it would have been used more extensively in the marine sciences program. However, since the cupola was the highest point on the habitat, if a window were broken the N202 mixture would escape and be displaced by water very quickly. A hatch that opens from the cupola into the engine room could be installed that would remain dogged when the cupola ii not being used. Higher habitat pressure would seat the hatch and keep water from entering the open trunk if a window were broken. Environmental - Control System (ECS) The environmental-control system is divided into five subsystems : gas supply, CO2 scrubber , thermal control, scuba charging, and emergency air . Osu Supply. No problems occurred during the initial nitrogen fill or while sup- plying make-up air at flow rates between 12 and 29 scfh to the habitat. However , many time. during the program the dessicant container on the low-pressure compressors was not tightened or the bleed valve was loose. This result. in line leakages and high pree- sores when the components are finally secured. CO2 Scrubber, Instrument s, and Contaminant Gases. A significant problem de- veloped w ith the CO2 scrubber. The habitat was occupied at 1155 on Saturday, February 15, 1969. A t 2350 on Sunday, February 16, 1969 , the CO2 level rose to 10. 2 mm Hg or 1. 34 percent surface equivalent by volume. Threshhold limits for CO2 published by •ATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES + .~~~~•. — - — - • • ~~~~~~ . ~ ~~~~~~~~~L~~~Ww~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - 12 the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery are 3. 8 mm Hg or 0. 5 percent. In addition , it is gene rall y accepted that the CO2 level should not rise above 1 percent su rface equivalent in closed hyperbaric environments. As seen in Figure 2, both blowers were used , and eventuall y a vacuum cleaner was connected to an auxiliary canister to supplement scrub- + bing , but still the Baralyme had to be changed twice as often as planned to keep the CO2 I • level under control. Habitat design specifications indicate that the ECS canister , holding 15 pounds of Baralyme, should hold CO2 at a nominal operating level of 2 mm Hg with changes every 12 hours. The aquanauts used from 40 to 45 pounds of Baral yme dail y, changing Baralyme more often to keep the nominal level at about 6 to 7 mm Hg. At no time during the project did the CO2 come down to the projected nominal operating value + of 2 m m Hg even with small auxiliary scrubbers helping out. Incidentally, both blowers were forcing air through the single canister and this was probably more harmful than helpful. Increased airflow detracts from scrubbing in that it promotes channeling through the absorbent and reduces dwell time, thereby reducing Baralyme efficiency. This can be noticed in Figure 2. Baralyme was changed more frequently, but the CO2 level continued to increase. + On the fourth day of the mission the aquanaut s asked to be notified when the CO2 level reached 7 mm Hg so Baralyme could be changed. They had noticed symptoms re- suiting from a high concentration of C02 : sho rtness of breath, increased respiration , and uncomfortable feelings. It is a foregone conclusion that the CO2 scrubbing system should be completely redesigned. In addition , prior to shipping the habitat for new missions, the habitat could be given a dry-run in the shipyard at bottom pressure , not only to check the work- ability of the systems, but also to help train the aquanauts before mission start. On March 1, 1969 , an auxiliary scrubber from the U. S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit was installed in the engine room. Later in the program a scrubber from Duke + University replaced the EDU scrubber. These helped to keep the CO2 level in check , allowing longer time periods between Baralyrne changes for primary mission research. A comparison , made by the aquanaut s on the 17th day, of the effectiveness of the ECS scrubber and the EDU scrubber is shown in Figure 3. Both sc rubbers use a 15-pound abso rbent charge , but the EDU scrubber quickly reduced the CO2 level to 1. 5 mm Hg, while the ECS scrubber gradually lowered the level only to 1. 0 mm Hg. At two different time s during the project , samples of Baral yme we re analyzed + at Battelle to determine CO 2 per pound of absorbent. The results are given in Table 1. Reasons for subpar perfor mance include inefficient canister design , insufficient Baraly me -bed capacity, hi gh f low rate of atmosphere gas through the canister giving rise to channeling in the absorbent , and low dwell time of gas in the bed. Three days into the mission the mass spectrometer malfunctioned. The fault was determined to be an ove rheated transformer. It was disassembled into two part s by the aquanauts and sent topside for repairs. The fact that thi s complicated instrument could be taken apart , sent up, and reinstalled is significant not only to underwater research , but also to space exploration. If equipment is even partially serviceable by inexper- ienc ed researchers in isolation, then astronauts can perform similar work under analo- gou s space conditions. SATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I • I + -~: ~‘w~~~~ - I 1 13 rz~ 0 _ _ _ _ _ _ Ii ~ ‘c ~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . > —i~ _ _ _ / __ _ _ _ —‘ ~~~~~ I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > 0 _ _ _ _ S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ h _ _ _ _ _ _ •1i _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ ill _ _ _ _ _ 1 — ~~~~~  _._& + • II I - ~ —II _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ _ _ _ _ _ • • — l ~1—~~~ ---. --J-__ _ _ ~ . — . ~t- I — II —-. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I _ _ - ~ — — J I _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~—_— ~~~~~~~ § • _ _~~~$1 = 2 °~ - • §H WW ’ 03d ‘ •A TTCLLU MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES + .‘ I ~4 A . ~ + +j . I • • - f • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~ — - 14 + TAB LE 1. BA RALYME ANALYSIS Manufacturers Suggested EDU Scmbber ECS Scrubber Performance Sample Taken Weight Lb C02/ Weight Lb C02/ Weight Lb C02/ From Habitat Percent Lb Baralyme Percent Lb Baralyme Percent Lb Baralyme February 20, 196 9 Not in use 11.6 1/8. 62 39.0 1/2. 56 March 25, 1969 13. 2 1/7. 6 14.9 1/6.22 While the mass spectrometer was being repaired (11 days), colorimetric tube s, infrared analyzers , and a gas chromatograph were used to monitor gas partial pressure in the habitat. This equipment provided adequate , but not continuous , gas analysis , at- though some discrepancies were noticed in the gas values among the different anal yzers. Most significant, however , we re the reading s taken first near the floor and then near the ceiling of different rooms. These showed that CO2 stratified in the cabin s, i. e., on February 22 , 1969 , there was 7. 6 mm Hg at table level and 5. 3 mm Hg at the ceiling in the crew ’ s quarters. The partial pressure of CO2 also varied between two rooms in the same cy linder , i. e., on Febr uary 24, 1969 , it was 6. 1 mm Hg in the crew ’s quarters and 3. 8 mm Hg in the brid ge. This indicates that ECS circulation in the cabins was not adequate to eliminate st ratification of heavier gase~ . + The mass spectrometer malfunctioned again on the 46th mission day. This time the fault was attributed to failure of the ion pump. It remained out of service for the dur ation of the program. The mass spectrometer was down for 25 days of the 60-day mission. Samples of the closed atmo sphere gas from the 13th day of the mission were taken back to the Naval Research Laboratory for breakdown analysis. Results showed the following quantities of undesirable gas present: 2. 1 mg total hydrocarbon/meter3, 8. 4 ppm methane, 9. 3 ppm CO. The NASA specification for breathing air in hyperbaric chambers lists maximum allowable contamination to be: 50 ppm gaseou s hydrocarbons (e. g. methane) and 20 ppm CO. Bu Med has become even more stringent , allowing no detectable gaseous hydrocarbons and 20 ppm CO. Thermal-Control System This sy stem is used to maintain the habitat air temperatur e and humidity by cool- ing the gas flow in a heat exchang er and removing condensate, then passing the gas through charcoal filters to remove odors , and finally reheating it , when necessary, to nominal cabin temperature. Seawater was pumped into the habitat to remove heat from the Freon compressor. Cool glycol/water solution was then pumped from the corn- pressor to the separate cabin heat exchangers. The thermostat in the crew ’s qua rters was lowered only once during the mission and the average habitat temperature fluctuated only a few degrees on either side of 80 F. Relative humidity averages varied from cabin to cabin (wet room 50 percent , engine room 55.4 percent, bridge 48 .2 percent , c r ew ’ s quarters 57 .3 pe rcent), and the average relative humidity was 52. 1 percent. + BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ii / 1 r~~~~~~~~~~js~~~ — ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . - - I I 15 I 1I 1.5 mm I 0 I 0 i I I 0 Time ,hours I a. Experimental Diving Unit Scrubber I 11 I I I I 4 1 0 1 2 4 Time ,hours ~ I b. General Electric ECS Scrubber A-55004 FIGURE 3. COMPARISO N BETWEEN THE EDU AND THE ECS SCRUBBERS * 1I BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES i-I _______________________ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ - - ~~~~~~~~~~~ 4 - / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ — ~- - + 16 Two times during the mission the seawater flow switch located in the wet-suit cabinet shorted out , blowing a fuse and automatically turning off the ECS. The first time, while investigating the failure , one of the aquanauts received a mino r shock. The shock was not at all harmful, but it shows that the switch could be dangerous. After each failure the switch was replaced with a new , copper-diaphragm switch. A third time the aquanauts noticed the copper diaphragm was getting badly corroded and eaten through by salt water. It was replaced before failure with a flow switch having a stain- less steel diaphragm. Much time was involved in replacing this switch. In the future , if the switch remains in the wet-suit cabinet where it is subject to saltwater corrosion , it should be made of corrosion-resistant material and should be protected by a water- proof container. During the mission considerable condensate formed in the crew ’ s quarters, the crossover tunnel , and the eng ine room. Condensate formed at a rat e of about 3 gallons + per day in the crew ’ s quarters , at times becoming a considerable nuisance. It is no- ticed that the highest humidity and maximum heat load occurred in the crew ’ s quarters and the engine room. When periods of maximum heat load occurred (all four aquanaut s aboard cooking dinner) , temperature and humidity increased. Cooler air coming through the ducts seemed to condense moisture in the warmer, more humid air surround- ing the ducts , allowing condensate to run down the outside of the ducts and into cabinet s or through the acoustic tile. This problem could be eliminated by better insulation of air and drain ducts and more direct routing of heat-exchanger drain lines. While dealing with the condensate problem , fuses started blowing in the reheater in the c rew ’ s quarters. After the fuses were changed a few times , it was dete rmined that the condensate was sho rting the fuses. At this time the heat exchanger drain ducts were repositioned for better drainage , the airflow damper was adjusted , and the fuse + plugs were dried. The aquanauts then turned all the thermostats down below ambient temperature and then raised them one at a time. All fuses held up and the reheater was functional again. However , while adjusting temperature and gas flow from the heat exchangers in the brid ge and the crew ’s quarters , disproportionate flow conditions resulted and humidity began to rise. This caused rapid cycling of the compressor sole- noid until , eventuall y, the ECS shut off automatically. Adjustments were made for 30 + minutes before the ECS was started again. Each time the ECS shut down, temperature would increase , expanding the gas in the habitat . When the ECS was again started , the gas would cool and water would rise in the trunk thus tri pping the flood alarm. High- pressure air from the scuba line then would be released to restore habitat pressure. In addition to the condensate problem, noise levels in the cabins were annoying (see the appendix) . Noise from auxiliary scrubbers in the engine room in conjunction with installed equipment noise prohibited all but shouted conversation in the engine room. When the reheater circuit breaker in the crew ’ s quarters closed , it was annoying to the extent that sleep was disturbed. However , there is a break-even point in system de- sign where the designer must weigh relative advantages and disadvantages between creating a cost-effective system and providing “creatu re comfo rts ”. In the case of the engine room, soundproo f paneling should be installed, but sy stem redesign to r educe noise is probably not in order. + BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - / 1 17 Scuba-Charging, Low-Pressure Air, and Emergency Air Systems A suggestion was made (discussed in the appendix) to provide more utility and increase available space by reorienting the scuba-charging and low-pressure air station. It was mentioned that gages and hose reels be mounted near the ceiling of the wet room over the trunk with valve s mounted on the trunk railing. The hoses would be reeled down and attached to bottles for charging, and reeled back up when not being used. In this manner the hoses would not block the trunk when bottles are being charged. From an engineering standpoint , it would be difficult to reel high-pressure charging hose , but the charging panel could be moved and plumbed in a more convenient location. In addi- tion, rather than permit emergency air to be used for normal charging purposes , a larger bank of receivers should be installed topside to provide a constant supply of high- pressure air to the charging station. The emergency air bottles could be moved under the crew ’ s quarters to keep the lower t runk under the wet room clear of hiding places for Morays and fish. Low-pressure air lines could be plumbed near the 10-inch trunk to permit easy exit exit of hookah hoses. + Plumbing and Sanitary System Each time the toilet was flushed , gas bubbles backed up through the water. The gas was described as sewer gas (see the appendix) . Complete gas analysis performed 13 day s after the mission began showed 8. 4 ppm methane in the closed atmosphere , indicating that sewer gas was clearly detectable early in the program. Methane , formed by decomposing organic material, is only a part of a group of gaseous hydrocarbons that NASA specifications indicate should be less than 50 ppm in hyperbaric application s and that Bu Med indicates should be undetectable (letter 7 June , 1968). Before the habitat left Philadelphia, and again during the construction phase , Battelle recommended that a goosenec be installed in the sewer line to trap gas and that an air fitting be at- • tached down,treazr. tu enable the divers to blow air into the outfall line to remove built - up material. Thi, would eliminate the problem on future missions. The bilge pump in the wet room did not pump the bilges dry because the inlet + orifice was situated on the side of the pump. In addition, early in March, the allen screws that hold the pump impeller tight vibrated loose. Before the problem had been diagnosed and rectified, it was neces sary to hand pump the bilge. A similar problem developed with the blower impeller on the Duke CO2 scrubbe r. All components known to be vibration sensitive should be locked and/or wired to prevent such failures. The inlet of the seawater pump should be sc reened to prevent small fish f rom being sucked into the rotor blades and possibly clogging the pump. Communications System The intercom was the most critical communications system in that it was the primary means of communication between the aquanauts and the test director. Of course , it was backed up with the sound-powered phone in the bridge and the Bogen in the crew quarters. However , if the intercom were lost, verbal interaction would greatly de- crease , impairing safety as well as data collection. Five times during the mission the intercom went out of service unexpectedly. In three of these cases the circuit breaker •ATTEL LE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES [~~~ _~ + ~ 18 had snapped open. In the first case the batteries ran down , providing a voltage too small to hold the breaker in. The breaker was set again after the batteries were re- charged. In the second case , the wet-room trunk alarm shorted out , throwing the cir- cuit breaker in the brid ge again. The alarm was bypassed to restore intercom communi- cations. In the third case , the breaker went out for no apparent reason; when the breake r was reset , communications were restored. The other two intercom failures did not in- volve the habitat breaker. One occurred when the press-to-talk switch in the van mal- functioned. It was replaced with a hand microphone. The other involved loss of communication from the habitat for 90 minutes while communication from the van to the habitat remained in service. It was found that the habitat console microphone was turned off to increase the clarity and volume from the bridge speaker. The closed-circuit TV monitors were equally as important as the intercoms. The test director could monitor the aquanauts ’ activity and record data which were not ver- ball y reported. In addition, the TV monitors, as well as the open microphones , pro- vided the major input to the very successful behavioral program. The cameras func- tioned well throughout the mission, with occasional replacement of the Videcon tubes . The engine roo m camera failed twice. After the second failure , all came ras had to be turned off fo r 24 minutes while repairs were made to the panel. The sound-powered phones in the way stations were used more by the surface support divers for communications checks than they were by the aquanauts . These phones were seldom in wo rking order. The protective casings , open at the bottom, were makeshift and in many cases admitted water to the phone components. Conversations from the phones that worked after emplacement were garbled and not easily understood. Halfway through the mission, all phones were removed from the way stations to deter- mine the reason for their failure. They were r eplaced , but they still did not wo rk. Near the end of the mission it was found that Intercom Key 8 must be depressed to receive the way-station phones. Following thi s discovery, occasional repair s had to be made to keep the phones wo rking in a nominal fashion. In future program s, the cases should be redesigned, and operating procedure clearly delineated. Although not specifically a habitat subsystem, the underwater cameras should be mentioned here. One underwater TV worked for a short while near the middle of the mission , and the other was never put into service. When the camera worked, it was not positioned correctly to monitor diver egress and entry, and it was of marginal use in the marine scienc e program. The shark cage was adequate for determining whethe r dan- gerous anim als we re nea r ; the camera was not needed for this purpose. If the under- water cameras ar e to be u sed in futur e prog ram s, they should be repaired and evalu- ated before shipment. Furthermore, it may be po ssible to provide the camer as with pan-and -tilt devices for optimum usefulness. The intercom , the sound-powered phone, and the Bogen should be discussed from a habitability standpoint. Much whining and screaming was reported coming through the intercom on the bridge, and the intercom in the engine room was ineffective unless ear- phones were used to reduce noise and feedback. Thi s equipment probabl y should be tuned or replaced before the next mission. The sound-powered phone on the brid ge was not as easy for communications as was the Bogen in the crew ’ s quarters. The Bogen was intended for use primarily for per sonal outside telephone calls. Sinc e the commercial telephone link was never com- pleted , it served as a supplementary habitat/topside communicator. One must speak in a loud voice to talk over the sound-powered phone and communications were not clear . •ATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES — 19 If it is not cost restrictive , the sound-powered phone could be replaced with a Bogen type for future missions. Convenience items, i. e., the commercial TV , the AM/FM radio , and the tap e recorde r , did not provide the service intended . The TV was in good working order , but the antenna was mounted in the w rong direction for receiving available stations. Since the antenna was not moved during the mission, the TV was useless. The FM po rtion of the radio received music only about 10 days and it was used during that time. Then it + ceased to function. The volume control on the tape recorder appeared to need adjust- ment. The music was either too low , or so loud it was annoying . Since these are con- venience items and not mission critical , nor mal maintenance and repai r between mis- sions and proper setup procedure on-site would restore the service. + Electrical System Before the mission began , there was considerable discussion concerning the dis- advantages of using a center-Y ground to the ha bitat . It is considered safer to take the g round back thr ough the umbilical and ground to suppo rt facilities to eliminate not only • a potential mild-shock situation in the habitat, but also galvanic corrosion effects. It was not clear whether the g rounding sy stem was chang ed before the mission or not, but only the shock received fro m the seawater fl ow switch was reported and only ve ry mild corrosion was noticed. Many times when the generators were switched over , a momentary loss of power was experienced. On the 5th and 19th days habitat power failed because of a generator fuel-pump malfunction. All emergency systems worked well and emergency procedures were applied as planned. Power was switched back within 15 minutes and all systems resumed normal functioning . It has been mentioned before that the reheater circuit breaker in the crew ’ s quar- ters had a noisy and annoying action. This breaker could be replaced with a less noisy + model in a diffe r ent location. In terms of habitability, the dryer , which worked well throughout the mission, + could be replaced with a washer/dryer combination for convenience. Only a nominal amount of additional vertical space would be needed. Habitat Interfaces and Connected Equipment A number of interfaces and government-furnished equipment have already been considered in the section on Habitat Systems as they seem an integral part of the habitat though not specifically supplied with the habitat per se. These include the underwater + I TV cameras , the NA SA mass spectrometer , and emergency air supply. Other items , to be considered in this section, include umbilical,, way stations , built-in-breathing (BIB) system, hookah system, aquasonics , and the dumbwaiter system. F BAT1 ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES a — — — ~~~~~- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - $ 20 Umbilical s All umbilicals were layed and connected at eithe r end with few problems. In con- necting the c ommunications umbilical, no strain relief could be found; this was cor- rected before the mission start . No chaffing gear was provided for the plastic water umbilical on the support barge , and the connection at the habitat slipped off twic e, once before the mission and once during the mission. In each case, this was corrected quickly and the line was flushed. Prior to mission start , the casing of the high-pressure- air umbilical ruptured because of entrained gas , but it was repaired and provided uninterrupted service for the duration of the mission. Way Stations and Navigation Markers Five way stations were set in strateg ic positions on the ocean bottom. The sta- tions were to be used to resupply breathing air , to communicate with the habitat and the control van , and as protection against dangerous sea animals if encountered. The only use of the stations was in t r a n s f e r of air bottles, and this was done infrequently (see the appendix) . As mentioned, the phones did not wo rk consistently, were used little by the aquanaut s , and could be improved for future missions. The fact that the stations were used during the mission and provided reassuring landmarks to the aqua- nauts indicates that they probably should be used in future programs. However , in areas where the bottom is precipitous, anchors or moors should be selected with care. Conversely, the navigational grid system, which took days to fabricate and days to lay out properly, was not used. Obviously, considerable time and effort can be saved by eliminating this sytem. Built-in-Breathing (BIB) System For some reason the BIB hoses and regulators in the bridge and engine room were supplied by GE , and the BIB’ s in the crew ’ s quarters and wet room were furnished by NAVFAC. During the construction phase it was found that the NAVFAC BIB’ s were not of the water-immersible type. Sinc e the main reason for installing an emergency BIB system was to provide life support in the event of flooding or contaminated atmosphe r e, last- minute procurement and replacement was necessary. Local procurement was not possible , so a Battelle representative returned to Columbus and was back on-site with eight BI B’ s 3 days later . Thi s, and similar problems , may have been avoided by com- piling a list of equipment to be supplied to each agency, which is disseminated for com- ment and returned to the central agency. In this manner , each person in each agency would know his equipment responsibilities, and discrepancies could be ironed out in the planning phase. Hookah Sy stem The hookah , supplied by Battelle , was a Jack Brown full-face mask with com- munications in each mask and a central tender control unit situated on the bridge of the habitat (Fi gure 4). The system was recently developed under contract with the U. S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit which provided it for use on the Tektite Project. It pe rmitted tethered excursions up to 200 feet from the habitat . BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I Zl + C,,z • .. ~ 0 0 ‘—I / 1~ Z I I U H 0 / PATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABOR ATORIES - [+ • - +• • —V.. -- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 22 The mask and communications worked well throughout the duration of the program, but the hookah system could be made more convenient to use. In Tektite I , the hookah hose was attached to the low-pressure-air source in the habitat, rou ted through the 10- inch truck from the wet room , and coiled on makeshift chocks outside the shark cage; then the mask was brought back into the wet room through a crack in the shark cage door and hung on a bracket for the aquanaut ’ s use. The hose leading th rough the shark cage and wet-room trunk was fastened to the screening by sho rt pieces of coated wire to keep it out of the way of swimmer traffic . For follow-on missions , the hookah could either be coiled and stored inside the wet room or be wound on a reel outside the shark cage with .leat s to hold the hose to the side wall. Either of these methods would make the hookah more convenient to use. The hookah was used for 41 man-hours of diving, about one-tenth of the total man- hours in the water (453:26) . Aquasonics + Two sets of aquasonic gear were supplied to the project. rhese included three diver units and two tender units. These underwater-communication units were used infrequently because of lack of reliability. More reliable, longer range swimmer com- munications would be useful in the next mission. If better units are not commercially + available , they could be developed. Dumbwaiter System The large transfer pot, a heavy steel can, was overdesigned for use at 50-foot depths. It was too heavy for convenient handling, and had a tendency to rust. Con- siderable bo ttom time and energy was expended in simply transferring materials. Con- stant maintenance was necessary with each of the steel pots , not only to reduce external rust, but also to clean up sealing surfaces to effect proper seals. Furthermore , many items arrived in the habitat wet or crushed. It is suggested that new noncorrosive transfe r pots be bought or fabricted which + are negatively buoyant when loaded. Small lead weights can be used to adjust the buoy - - ancy for light loads. Then , a simple closed-loop dumbwaitering system, such as the one shown in Figure 5, could be used. A wave and tide canceller , nothing more than a counteracting wei ght sliding in a tube , could be attached to the platform sheave to keep system lines taut. The parallel lines to the habitat serve as guy lines for the pot in tran- - + sit to and fro m the habitat . The pot is guided through a self-centering trap door in the top of the sha rk cage , and is then conveyed, via idlers , into the t runk. Slack is taken out of the lines by the electric winch which also acts as the driving force for pulling in the transfer pot. Idler sheeves could be placed so they are out of the way of entering + and exiting divers when the system is not in use. The removable idler is placed in a j socket in the trunk to provide clearance between the trunk and the pot when transfers J - • are being made. When the system is not being used , the idler is removed , allowing guy lines to lie out of the way against the trunk walls in cleats. J BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LA BORATORIES • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I t I - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - 7/ _ _ _ _ _ - r L ~.~~~ ~~~~~~ - r.w~~~~ ’~~~~~— ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • 23 I Wave cancel b r / ± Electric ~~~~~~ l—._.~ ~-~) wench ~~~~~~~ Driving sheave Self-centering trap door — ‘— Removable j idler rldler Shank + cage - A-5eQo~ FIGURE 5. DUMBWAITER-SYSTEM CONCEPT t-I • BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I -.-- - --— ——~~.—~~- • - - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ — —— — - - - - //~ 24 Habitat Support Equipment The variety of equipment on both the control barge and crane barge (Fi gure 6) to + supply power , gas , water , and monitoring support to the aquanauts fu nctioned ve ry well and allowed few interruptions in service. The water-blister bag and the redundant electric generators both presented minor servicing problems. It took considerable time to replen ish wat er to the bag and fuel to the deisel generators. During the time the supply boat was moored to the control barge , wave and wind action would knock the boat into the barge , jarring sensitive instrumen- tation. On future missions, regardless of whether or not AMMI barges are used , higher capacity pumps will be needed for tansfers. In addition, as mentioned before , the elec- + tric fuel pump on the generato r failed twice during the mission, causing power outages in the habitat. The decompression complex , supplied throug h the office of U. S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage , functioned well throughout the mission, and the Seabee divers and equipment operators are to be commended on their proficiency gained ove r the sho rt period of time. However , problems occurred with the lift crane. Two times during the project the cran e was inoperable f or considerable periods of time owing to failure of parts , that required much time to procure. First the hyd raulic accumula tor fail ed , then , mid- way through the mission, a hydraulic valve failed. Fortunately the crane was not needed during these periods for emergency withdrawal of the aquanauts. The support barge was raised out of the water away from wave action by winching it onto piles in the corner hawse pipes (Figure 6). Since the bottom along the east shore was ro cky, the piles were to be held upright by guy wires attached to rock bolts in the bottom. Fourteen holes were drilled underwater in the igneous volcanic rock by the Battelle electric tool for installing rock bolts. Unfortunately the winches used to pull the barge out of the water did not have a capacity equal to the heavy load. The barge was ba rely out of the water in calm weather and was cocked on the pilings. In heavy weather , the barge was shaken by wave action. In future programs at the Lameshur Bay site , - thought could be given to bu ilding a stable pier before the mission beg ins. At other + sites , not readily ac cessible to land , a larger vessel could be used for all support functions. Aquanaut Support Equipment A variety of equipment was brought or shipped to the site to aid the aquanauts in conducting their marine science program. Included were lobster detection and tagging devices , plankton standpipe , coring tools , diving equipment, and the Aeroj et General Mini Sub. Lobster Detection and Tagging Devices Two means were available for tagging the lobster population in Lameshur Bay and + surrounding bays: sonic pingers and barbed spaghetti tags (Sphyrion) of different color combinations. The colored tags did a fine job of marking individual lobsters in the popu- lation , but to find a particular lobster over and ove r again to study migration, range , BAT TELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABO RATORIES _ Ii ~~~~~~~~~ ‘ ~~ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I 1 25 + + I • ~p~~c~,c FIGURE 6. SUPPORT BARGE AND CRANE BARGE WITH + DECOMPRESSION COMPLE X ¶ + _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -‘. --.- -~~~~~~- _ _ _ - _ _ _ - - 26 feeding cycles , etc . , a sonic tag was used (Figure 7). The sonic tags had an effective range of onl y 50 to 100 feet. Part of this problem may have been the extreme direction- ality of the receiver, but most of the problem was the low-intensity output of the pinger . For future programs , longer range pinger/receiver set s would be more effective. This is an item for development. The signal can be made stronger or the receiver made more sensitive. Other equipment can be developed to study lobster habit s. A small underwater photocell/light source , when placed near the lobster burrow , can indicate entry and exit of the animal. Perhap s phosphorescent grease or paint applied to the animal would per- mit simple detection of the lobster at night by means of an underwater black light. Plankton Standpipe Near the start of the mission it was found that the plastic water pump for the standpi pe had been run dry and was useless. It was necessary to acquire anothe r from the mainland . On the 18th day of the mission the plankton standpipe was carried away from its moor by the current. It was recovered, cleaned , and placed in position once again. Halfway through the mission the pump arrived and was installed, making the system operational. The first plankton experiment was started with 15 days left in the mission. Owing to the late date , the plankton experiment was cut short to allow more time for research in a more productive area. Development of the plankton sampling equipment should continue. The equipment could be adequately designed for its environment during the lull between missions , and an inventory of spare parts could be provided to eliminate replacement difficulty. Coring Tools Two types of co ring tools were supplied to the aquanauts by Battelle’ s Columbus Laboratories (Figure 8). The first was an electric unde rwater drill developed by Battelle under contract to the U. S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage. Two 14-inch + diamond-tipped core bar rel s, 3/4 inch in diameter , were supplied with the tool. The electric tool was to be used primarily fo r taking geolog ical core samples in hard rock and coral It worked well during training, and halfway through the mission it was used to take rock core samples. During this experiment the diamond tip on the barrel broke off . The spare ba rr el was located , but the co ring tool was not u sed again. If the tool is to be used on futu re missions, added protection could be gained by storing it inside the habitat rather than leaving it out side continuously, and to insu re continuous good service, it should be thoroughly flushed with fresh water after each use to prevent salt buildup on the roto r. The second coring tool supplied was a pneumatic impacting tool designed to operate with air from a SCU BA bottle. One-inch-diameter plastic core barrels of varying length were supplied with a core catcher. The air tool was to be used for coring in sand and mud. This was the same tool that was used in Sealab II with much success. The geo- + logical research did not require the use of this tool during the mission, and it was not used except in training. If future missions require the soft-strata coring tool , it can be supplied. BATT E LLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I -/ ~~~~~ _ _ I I . 27 I- I + a~ Sonic Receiver Device : 1 b. Fixing Pinge r on Lobster FIGURE 7. LOBSTER DE TECTIN G AND TAGGING DEVICE I ~ SATTELL E MEMORIA L INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABOR ATORI ES _________ _ _ _ _ _ _ - ——--— • • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • — ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~--- -. w- -- 28 I — a. Underwater Electric Coring Drill — .41+ *~ ; ~A ~~ I Li __ f b. Pneumatic Coring Tool FIGURE 8. CORING TOOLS I I BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES • I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ t____ _ _ _ _ q - ~~~ I - ~~~~~~~~~~~ I 29 Diving Equipment The diving equipment available to the aquanauts consisted of open-circuit SCUBA + and the Jack Brown hookah . The hookah has been discussed previously. The SCUBA equipment functioned very well; however , co nsiderable time and energy was expended + charging tanks. Furthermore, double-tank SCUBA breathing equipment is limited to a little over an hours ’ duration at a depth of 50 feet. As a result , wo rking dives were short and excursions were limited. The bubbles from the regulators frightened the ani- mals being studied . In the future , marine research could be enhanced by procurement of dependable semic~osed breathing apparatu s allowing dive times of up to 4 hours ’ duration. Three brands of equipment that may be satisfactory are the U. S. Navy Mark VI , the D rager , • the Stark Electrolung, and the GE backpack. Both the Mark VI and the Drager units are dependable devices in use at this time; the Stark Electrolung is now on the market and may be good; the GE backpack is developmental equipment , but once it has been in ser- vic e, and has been evaluated, it may prove to be the best for the job. In each case the duration of the dive is limited by CO2 removal. It may be valuable to perform research to develop a long-duration, semiclosed breathing system using N2O2 breathing mix. Tektite has proved the worth of shallow-water saturation work for scientific purposes , but without the use of dependable, inexpensive, long-duration breathing apparatu s de- signed specifically for that purpose , progress could be hindered. Mini Sub Since diving time was limited by the available breathing equipment, a swimmer delivery vehicle was procured from the Office of Naval Research to allow longer ex- cursions from the habitat. The sub was an Aerojet General design (Mark VII , Model P, 1955 vintage), free flooding, and propelled either by electric power or by foot pedalling (Figure 9). The sub had not been overhauled or evaluated before it arrived on-site. As a result , + it was found to be defective in many areas. The original batteries were useless, the old- fashioned floating switch gear for selecting motor speeds was corroded and intercon- + + I necting wires were missing, stee ring linkages were disconnected and the wings were out of adjustment, the variable water ballast tank had a hole in it, the dogs on the stainless + steel clutch in the electric motor were broken off , and insufficient Styrofoam buoyancy material was included. The sub had to be completely overhauled from stem to stern be- fore it would be of any use, a difficult task without the proper tools and replacement parts. Batteries were replaced with semisealed lead/acid marine batteries, dogs were welded on the clutch, and the switch gear was rebuilt and rewired so the electric mecha- nism was in working order . Linkages were repaired and greased, the wings were aligned , and the ballast tank was silver soldered. However , during the first trial run , acid leaked from the batteries , ruining much internal wiring. No replacement batteries suitable for the job could be found in the area , so electric power was not used. Packing Styrofoam was assembled in the sub to provide neutral buoyancy; however , at a depth of 50 feet, thi s Styrofoam compressed, decreasing buoyancy. An attempt was made to replace the Styrofoam with inflatable life jackets , but nor,e were available. Because of the poor condition of the sub and the unavailability of replacement parts , the mini sub was not used by the aquanauts for excursions. However , othe r swimmer [ delivery vehicles are available in many of the Navy facilities that could be very useful BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COL~~MIUS LAB ORATORIES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1 ~~~~~ I 7 b / _ _ _ 30 . 3 . H FIGURE 9. MINI SUB j SATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES .~~ + • • ~~~~ • • I f + - + + + -~ . / _‘ ~1 - - • 31 for future programs. These could be readily adapted for use in the marine sciences mission. The vehicles should be capable of maintaining 3 to 5 knot s fo r at least 4 hou rs. Recharging of the batteries should be easy to perform and facilites could be provided fro m the habitat for this purpose. Apparatus could be designed into each vehicle to hold aquanauts ’ research tools in a convenient manner to expedite their work , i. e., tools such as a clipboard and pencil , sonic tags , sonic receiver , geological equipment, etc . Swim- mer delivery vehicles of the type briefly described here could provide a valuable service in the performance of the shallow-water saturation work. PROCEDURES EVALUATION This section includes a review of procedures used for deployment of the habitat , for aquanaut training, and for providing living facilities and logistics for support person- nel. Procedures used in each of these areas were successful, but since hindsight is sometimes the best fo resight , review may lead toward even more efficient and more + cost-effective performance in Tektite II and future shallow-water missions. Habitat Deployment The Tektite habitat rigidly fastened to an AMMI barge , was tran sported to Greater Lameshur Bay, St. John s, Virgin Islands, in an LSD. The barge was off-loaded , towed to the predetermined launch site, and moored. Buoyancy and Stability The primary mean s of counteracting the volume buoyancy of the habitat cy linders , crossover tunnel, cupola, and air bottles was to load open tank s in the habitat base with about 143, 000 pounds of scrap steel punchings. In this mode, the habitat, dry on the A MMI barge , would have about 27 , 400 pounds positive buoyancy when lowered into the wate r. Launch-Site Procedure The habitat, moored at the launch site , was being thoroughly checked and final + hou sekeeping was being completed prior to lowering (Figure 10). At the same time, the Seabees were placing and adjusting a nonrigid template on the ocean bottom to act as a guide alignment for the piles. Considerable effo rt was expended aligning the tern- plate dimensions; extreme accuracy was needed to allow the barge to slide down the pilings for 30 feet when clearance between the piles and the hawse pipes was only 2 inches. When finally the piles had been driven into the bottom, lowering away was held up to complete habitat systems’ check.. All the while the seas were working the barge against the piling support.. After only a few days the piles fractured at a stress riser (hole) drilled in each pile to allow the water to fill the inside of each pipe. The piles were withdrawn , cut , rewelded , and reinstalled at a slightly different launch location. + BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES 1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ C. — — , . . .. • - —.- -— •-. — ____________ / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ - — • - - - ~~~~~ ~, , I&a1~~~~gi~~~~1t~ ‘. ~~ tJP’~~(~~~~~~ ’ ’I.’~ ’,L ‘ iIl A i~~ — ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~W&~ ’~~~i ~~ WILA~ I~~1 w. , F-i‘-I cI~z Uz H H H-I . ~~ 0 ‘-4 I + ‘ ~ :~::;:. I 1 BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES 1~~ + /~~~~~~ !V~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ‘ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ —. I 1 33 Similar problems with the template had to be overcome before the new piling s were driven. Three attempts were made to sink the AMMI barge to the bottom. The procedure • used was to station Seabees in crows ’ nests on top each pile controlling 5-kip winches to - stabilize each corner of the barge independently as it lowered (Fi gure I l) . Tensiometers in series with the winch cables indicated forces at each corner. Steel tape s, read simul- taneously, precisely measured the barge horizontal attitude . The first lowering attempt was aborted because of darkness. On the second attempt , a corner pile pulled loose from the bottom a distance of 3 feet and had to be redriven. The barge was raised over- - nig ht becaus e of time-consuming technical problems. The third attempt to launch the habita t went smoothly, with a minimum of operational difficulties; however it required a full day to complete. The floating habitat just after launch can be seen in Figure 12. Emplacement Site Procedure The following day 10, 000 pounds of pig iron ballast was placed in t rays on the habitat base by Seabee divers; thi s reduced buoyancy to about 17 ,400 pounds. Towing lines were attached to chocks provided , and the habitat was towed about one-quarter mile • to the emplacement site where it was placed in a two-point moor. Final ballasting was begun to adjust buoyancy to 5000 pounds before haul-down could begin. The original method of ballasting with pig iron from pallets was slow and inefficient. A trammie pipe was ri gged so pigs could slide through the pipe from the surface into the tray s on the base and this greatly speeded up the ballasting operation (Figure 13). When the habitat was 500 0 pounds positively buoyant , manual come-along s were fixed between the base and steel-plate deadmen on the bottom , and haul-down commenced. + - The habitat went down smoothly and was secured to the deadrnen within an hou r. A f 10, 000-pound water ballast tank in the habitat was flooded and additional pig ballast was + L added to bring the total bottom weight of the habitat to about 30 , 000 pounds , sufficient to withstand seasonal weather and sea conditions. - The emplacement site had been prepared by the Seabees for the habitat weeks prior to actual emplacement. A frame had been constructed on the ocean bottom and sand had been sifted to provide a level bottom between the coral reefs. I Deployment-Procedure Evaluation The single , most important criterion in analyzing the deployment procedure is transportation to and from the operations site. The limiting facto r is the maximum depth the water can attain in the well deck of a Landing Ship Dock (LSD). It is obvious E that the most efficient design of a habitat, slanted toward the emplacement process , is one that can be floated out of the well deck of an LSD as a unit without the use of an AMMI barge , moored at the emplacement site for engineering systems checks , then but- I toned up and sunk to the bottom using water ballast tanks and supporting guide wires. However , the limiting facto r is the 8-foot maximum water depth attained in the well deck of the LSD transport ship. The habitat , as desi Pined , uses steel punching ballast , and + with a total weight of 155 tons , the draft is ab ‘ +t ‘2 feet. Even by removing the ballast and designing buoyancy tanks into the base , as intended in initial habitat designs , the less-than-8-foot draft and associated vertical center of gravity combined with the exposed sail area would make transportation and stable mooring a doubtful venture. Therefore , BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES • I , ! - _ _ - - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - - 34 FIGURE 11. PILE TENDERS IN CROW’S NEST BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LA BC~~ A TORIES ‘I ~1 - ., i 1 + I L. FIGURE 12. FLOATING HABITAT BATTELL . E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES — —--•• — ~~ • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ _ / S.. — ~p ~~~~~ . — - ~~~~~ - + • - ., 36 FIGURE 13. BALLASTIN G HABITAT USING TRAMMIE PIPE RATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES + .1 — , —-- • + / _ _ _ • I 37 the use of an AMMI barge becomes the moat feasible method of habitat deployment. However , a more efficient method of habitat emplacement and ballasting could be incor- porated. The use of electric dowahaul winches would help with emplacement and a + larger tra mmie pipe without join t s would speed up ballasting. Aquanaut Training Habitat sy stems’ t raining was completed in Philadelphia while support-equipment training and habitat refamiliarization were conducted on- site in the Virgin Islands. Aquanaut training on habitat systems, 1 week in duration, was conducted by General Elect ric engineers in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where final assembly was being completed. Class room lectures discussing system and sybsystern schematic s were followed by familiarization with the actual hardware in the habitat. With the pres- su re of many visitors and work still being completed on habitat assembl y, training suffered somewhat , but , in general , the acquainting of the aquanauts , standby aquanauts , and support divers with hardware intricacies was successful. However , a longer , more + intensive training period , with fewer distractions, possibly could have reduced some of the maintenance problem s encountered at the start of the 60-day mission. Figure 14 show s the training schedule prepared for use on-site. The schedule was not clesely adhered to, but the major items were covered. Marine-science- equipment preparation and study as well as aquanaut physical training was carried on at the discretion of the individual aquanauts. Habitat schematic s were reviewed generally by the aquanaut responsibl e for re- spective habitat subsystems; however, the most useful experience was gained through two short (no decompression) habitat live-ins. During the first practice session , the aquanauts stowed gear , established contact with topside , filled out sample logs , changed Baralyme, charged SCUBA S, used the hookah and checked communications, took CO2 reading s with colorimatic tubes , had lunch , conducted a simulated contaminated- atmosphere drill, then came back to the surface. The second live-in occurred the day before mission start and included the following general items : start up the environ- mental control system and practice emergency procedures including habitat flooding , fi re, and power loss. After each session, two of the aquanaut s were picked up from the ocean bottom near the cran e barge in the Personnel Transfer Capsul e (PTC) and were locked into the Deck Decompression Chamber (DDC) as a training drill. • Biomedical refamiliarization was accomplished on a casual basis between indivi- dual aquanauts and the medical personnel on- site. Thi s effort could have been more structured. Each Wednesday (biomedical day) during the mission , completion of the biomedical tests became more efficient, but for the first 2 or 3 weeks, excessive time was expended completing these tests. Dumbwaiter-operation training was completed on schedule; however it was deter- mined to be a difficult, time-consuming job when using the large transfer pot. Inter- mediate size pots were procured and used much of the time during the mission. A concept for a closed-loop dumbwaiter system has been described in the above text and is shown in Figure 5. A system of this type could reduce dumbwaiter training and re- supply time. DA TTELL I MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES T I _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - ~_~~~~ .a— ~—.‘— + - — -- -~ - 38 L Training Items Ni ghts Review of Habitat Schematics Ni ght Biomedical Items • • (EE G, EKG , Spiro- mete r , Firstaid, etc.) Morn Dumbwaite r Operation • • Morn Jack Brown Mask With • • Communications Morn Aquasonics Training • • Morn Underwater Electrical I • Tool Afternoon Afternoon Mini-Sub Training S S S S Afternoon Morn Habitat Live-In S I Afternoon Morn Decompression Complex S—I S’—~S Start of Experiment 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 • February FIGURE 14. TRAINING SCHEDULE • BATT ELL E MEMORIAL INSTI TUTE — COLUMBUS LABO RATORIES i Experience was gained with the hookah during the habitat live-in s rather than at the scheduled time. Most useful experience was obtained during the mission when the aqua- naut s used the hookah for 41 total diving hou r s, one tenth of the total dive time. Much of this on-the-job training with different items ironed out gray areas in the total training pro grams at some expense to the efficient use of saturated dive times. Training with aquasonics units and with the miniature two-man submersible was completed by only one aquanaut. At the time , lack of training with certain equipment prior to mission start seemed unfortunate , but in retrospect, valuable time was saved. Neither of these items were used to advantage during the mission. The aquasonics were unreliable and the mini sub could not be restored to a useful condition. The electric coring tool also was used only by the lead aquanaut before the mission started. It is important that the safety procedure is observed when the tool is used and that the current leakage detector is on-line. Operating procedures for the elect ric tool • were reviewed before it was used during the mission. + A structured training program, however disagreeable, inconvenient, or distasteful, could be planned and executed with care in futur e missions . In Tektite II there is a possibility that a number of marine scientists may cycle through the habitat. When a g roup of people have different levels of underwater experience , t raining can be adjusted to satisfy the needs of the least experienced member at the unfortunate expense of the more experienced. No training program can satisf y each participant , but valuable know- how may be absorbed , seeming unimportant at the time, that , during the mission, may help to evolve a more meaningful and more efficient program. Training is an effort + I where , by organization, doubtful and potentially dangerous situations can be avoided. Logistics and Facilities for Support Personnel The site for the Tektite experiment was in Greater Lameshur Bay, St. Johns , Virgin Islands , where the base camp was carved out of the forest in the Virgin Islands + National Park , and the habitat support site consisted of two barges moored off shore with no access except by boat. Logistic s became a time-consuming problem, not only + • because most of the food and supplies were ferried over from St. Thoma s, but al so be- cause personnel were transported to and from the support site only on regularly sched- uled boat runs. When boat s begr. .i to break down, the pr oje ct suffered from lack of + transportation. If the same site is to be used for future Tektite program s, it is suggested that the road along the ridge leading to Cabritte Horn Point be extended to the tip, thu s providing overland access to the support site. A short pier could be constructed off the point for habitat support equipment. If the site is judiciously selected , the pier would end in 30 feet of water , and a decompression complex could be placed at that point. If a number of jeeps are not available, three or four bicycles could provide adequat e transportation to and from the support facilities. Two support-diver boats and two supply boats for + trips to St. Thomas could supply the necessary supplies and logistic support . It is assumed that for subsequent missions in Lameshur Bay the original base camp would be available for use. To impove “creature comforts ” , a method of sup- • plying warm water could be installed; this would consist of anything from three 55- • gallon drums exposed to the sun, to a large capacity, self-contained low-pressure BA TTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE - COLUMBUS LABORATORIES F _ _ I + + • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 40 gas water heater. In addition , improved latrine facilities could be constructed. Aside f rom nominal rehabilitation of the camp, these are the only desi rable changes. SUMMARY L This report has dealt mainly with problems and possible improvements in the area of sy stem ha rdware and pro gr am procedure. A s the repo rt is read, however, it is realized that many of the pr oblems were minor , but if each one could be eliminated in follow-on missions, much saturated dive time and program expense could be saved . However , to summarize the program, aside fr om the problems herein desc ribed , one must realize that Tektite I was one of the most successful pioneering underwater projects conducted to date. The marine scientists discovered a new realm of detailed research subjects to study and the 60 day s added significantly to man ’ s knowledge of + the sea. The behavioral study produced over 400 , 000 bits of computer data to become + one of the most thoro ugh and useful studies of its kind. The behavioral scientists be- lieve this data has provided a highly successful and relatively low-cost analogy between saturated diving missions and long-duration manned space flight. The complete bio- medical program that was conducted revealed no physiological effect s from the long saturation dive on nitrogen-oxygen mix. Aside from the correctable problems men- tioned in thi s report , the habitat and a majority of its associated systems functioned well , providing the very comfortable habitation so necessary to such a long-duration dive. At no time during the dive was the safety of the aquanaut s impaired. Safety procedure was complete and understood by all. From an overall viewpoint, Tektite I was an unqualified success. SATrELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES — . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ q~~~~~y~~~-_ -. I I 1. - APPENDIX ENGINEERING DEBRIEFING I S . ~ I i i ‘ IT H I SATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES 4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ I, ________________________________________________ - ~~~~~~~ $+__.,_- ---_•. — —5—--. —~.. I - • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ ~~~~~~~ . __i • I I A-i APPENDIX I 1 ’ + ENGINEERING DEBRIEFING 1• Thompson: In conducting the engineering debriefing, let’ s start in the crews quarte r s of the Habitat . What can you remember in general about the problems associated with the use of the things. How were the bunks? Or , specifically, let’s start with cooking equipment. Did you have any problems that developed in the mission with the use of the cooking equipment? Clifton: If you hadn ’t supplied large utensils , and I hadn’t taken quite a few little ones down in the beg inning, we would have really been up a tree. There was no kind of casserole dish or an ything, of this kind when we went in. There was , in fact , a cookie + sheet that didn ’t fit in the oven , and there were three pans. I think the three pans and the cookie sheet that didn ’t fit the oven were the sum total of the cooking utensils in the Habitat. No coffee pot , nothing of this kind. Through the mission we requested and • got a number of items that made the preparation of meals much easier , particularly that large casserole dish which was extremely useful. We could do sauteing in it , which is what we called the fry ing in order not to disturb the surface personnel . We could do • baking in it; it was extremely versatile. It was a good thing to have. We later got down a small fry ing pan , Teflon lined , and that was very hand y for small sauces and things of this kind being fixed up. Somewhere along the line I think Gary Davis ’ wife sent down a cake pan , didn ’t she? Van der Walker: We were in bad shape for cake pans. Everytime I wanted to bake a cake I had to do it in the casserole pan . + + Mahnken: By the way, John , I can attest to the quality of your baking at 2- 1/2 atmo- spheres. Clifton: So can we. The coffee pot which we christened Elmer , I don ’t know how many of you knew that the coffee pot’ s name was Elmer -- because it was Perkin. + General: Oh, no~ - I Clifton: Elmer went very well. That was a good thing to have . The blender was cx- 1 tremely useful not only in the late afternoon and earl y evening period , but also in the preparation of any of the powdered mixes , or any mixing. Also in the preparation of• desserts , soups, and all kinds of things. - Batutis: Did you chop ice cubes? Clifton: Yes , it chopped ice. - Mahnken: You turn it on high speed first, then drop the ice cubes in. - Thompson: The nature of the foods , as it developed , I guess you switched from the E canned food to the fresh food. Specifically, in your opinion, was this a question of taste problem or was it just that you felt a need for variety? What would you say the motivation behind asking for fresh food was? BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ‘4 — rk~ _ ~~~ ~~~ - S ~~~~~~~ ~ •- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A—2 Clifton: Probably for more variety, in my case , than anything else. You can go so long on the prepared foods , and then they all start tasting the same. There is a lot you can do with prepared foods providing you have the right thing s down there: if you have sour cream mixes , gravy mixes , and thing s of this kind , cheese sauce mixes. We had a lot of good cheese down there. There ’s an awf ul lot you can do with the prepared foods to make them taste real good but you get to the point where you just want to try some different things. Thompson: What about taste ? Did you feel there was any de pletion in taste at all? Van der Walker: I’d like to comment on this food business and the type of food that was down there. I think that preparation of food at mealtimes was our biggest recreation . We reall y didn ’t have an ything else in the way of recreation in the Habitat as far as radio and TV is concerned , and so I think we had a lot of enjoyment out of the meals . I think that throwing TV dinners in was all right when we were reall y beat , but pre- paring the food was not a task that we objected to. Thompson: Who did most of the food preparation? Ma hnken: We put up a chart down there to count the number of times we prepared meals and did dishe s, and as it turned out it was almost equal except in the case of Ed who cooked most of the meals , because Ed was the best cook. He prepared most of the rrieals. Clifton: See , a little flattery goes a long way. The y can con a person into doing most anything. Batutis: Grilling or fry ing, did you reall y do any of that kind of thing ? Mahnken: Yes , f rom about the third week. We were broiling with an open oven , we were using formaldehyde in the wet room , we were using isopropal alcohol , John was using acetone , we were cleaning dead mollusks. The head gave a slight odor after we had good meals of a certain type , but as far as removing smells and odors from the atmosphere in the Habitat the system was very efficient . + Clifton: We think it would be very well to check the charcoal filters above the stove to find out what the y have absorbed in the period of time and see whether or not the y have reached their maximum absorption capacity or not. We dj dn ’t do excessive frying. We + watched this pretty carefully, but we didn ’t hesitate. I fried chicken; maybe some of you have had some of the cold fried chicken we left down there. We just went all out and fried it -- combination of fry ing and baking -- and there was some othe r things. Occasionally if you take a can of hash, and you put it in the oven as happened on one occasion , and you let it set there in the oven long enough that stuff will sit there and boil , and it would be ha rd put to throw more oil in the atmosphere than with something like that . Certainly there would be more oil coming in the atmosphere , more organics coming there , than there would be from very lightly sauteing eggs in the morning where you just have the butter warm and not bubbling. Batutis: Did you ever try running a carbon monoxide sample while you were doing this type of fry ing? Mahnken: Yes , several times. + Van der Walker: Every time we did something that was out of the realm of the law , we BA TTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBU S LABORATORIES ] /•+~ ~/1~i ~+ I ~/• ~~~~~~ I A— 3 ran all over with tubes of everything taking samples 11 Mahnken: I took a formaldehyde test in the wet room when I was actuall y using form- • aldehyde in there and I got no reading on the MSA tube for formaldehyde . We took - carbon monoxide several times. Van der Walker: When we used these things , you know , we didn ’t slap it all over. We We just used what we absolutel y had to use. Lorenz: How about the equipment itself with respect to the stove and refri gerator? Clifton: There were problems. As Bren knows the oven door fall s off. I Mahnken: But it’s not a General Electric product . Clifton : That’ s right . That oven had several problems. One burner doesn ’t work unless the other burners are on , and the oven; one of the wires burned out in the back. We repaired it, but in the repairing we somehow damaged the door. The door had a propensity to fall off especially when something had been in there at about 400 F. Then J there was a lot of dancing about try ing to get out of the way. Unknown: Excuse me , is it because the oven door fell off that you burned one of your I chairs? Clifton: No , what happened to the chair was a cookie sheet was taken out , and we didn ’t really think it was that hot and set on the chair . It was hotter than I thought it was. That ’s what happened to the chair. Thompson: As far as the noise level down in the crew quarters itself is concerned , the + • onl y comment I heard at one time was that you were having problems , I guess , with the circuits; the relays were clicking on and off . How about the general ambient noise + level and so on? Did you adjust to that? Any conscious problems sleeping ? Clifton: The only problems I noticed were with that relay. • Mahnken: In fact you can go on and say something here about the light level too. I think the light level was fine with the exception of my bunk which got light from the brid ge . E specially the lights from the bench just at the top of the ladder , and I had to use those + - curtains all the time. The curtains weren ’t long enough. Thompson: When you put the curtains around did you find you had enough circulation and body comfort? Mahnken: Yes , I think we all slept with our curtain s partially closed anyway. + Koblick: I sent you down some blankets. Did you use them? [ Mahnken: Yes. The colors weren ’t exactly what we had hoped for. Unknown: Let me ask you this , did you close the curtain s to shut out light , attenuate sound , or for privacy ? + I Mahnken: All of those reasons. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES • I I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~t + - _____ 5 I ~. • - A-4 + Clifton: Mainl y the light I think, in my case. Van der Walker: I didn ’t sleep with them closed , because I had the feeling it got very stuff y if I closed the curtains all the way. I just drew them far enoug h to cut out the li ght that came down off the brid ge. I tried to keep the one at the bottom of the bunk completely opened , and I couldn ’t sleep with that fan running. I slept with it running one night , and I woke up with a very sore throat . Mahnken: I kept getting headaches, so I turned it off when I went to sleep. Clifton: I did much the same . Started off using the fan nearly every night , and after about two weeks stopped. Withey: How often did you adjust the temperature thermostat? Clifton: As we adjusted the therrnostate . . . No , we did it once. We did adjust the + thermostats down there once. Withey: Higher or lower? Clifton: As I recall we dropped them just a bit , I believe, in the crews quarters. One of the problems , Dave , was when we developed those leaks we completely fouled up your well-balanced dampe r system , and threw it out of adjustment. There was some fidd ling around with that try ing to get balanced circulation and temperature back between the bridge and the crews quarters. We ended up shifting the temperature, as I recall , very slightl y in the crews quarters. Goldstein: Did you ever solve the leak entirely ? Clifton: Not completely. We stopped it , and it resolved itself , and I think we had about 4 weeks it was completel y dry up in that cabinet . Towards the end it seemed like we got a lot more condensation, about the last two or three weeks , and we started getting a drip there. It became a small problem again but not like it was at first . Ten ney: For the record , why don’t you say here that that wasn’t a leak? Clifton: Oh , ri ght . This was condensation being blown up the air ducts and was running + out through vents or through holes in the air ducts. Goldstein : The panel above the ref rigerator , when was that removed? Clifton: About the second day. Goldstein: Were there smears that were supposed to be taken from that specific location? Clifton: Yes , I think they were taken from another location in the Habitat . Van der Walker: There were extra spaces fo r smears . I took all the smears. Goldstein: You left it off , why ? Clifton: Storage space for one thing. Secondl y, it took us a long time to get that leak stopped up there. Until we had that completel y under control , we had to keep it off to BATTELLE MEMO RIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES • + ~. t+ ’ -A ~~~~,~~~ + I. , + / s +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ — ~~- •- - + I A-5 keep all the cups and pans in there to catch all the water. We were ge~.cing something on the order of three gallons a day coming down there . Mahnken : It was also coming through the ceiling soaking up in the acoustic tile and was creeping ominously toward my bunk. Tust in time Ed stopped the leak. Clifton: You would sit there and all of a sudden you would hear “ slurp” , and you would look and here it would jus t be pouring out of a new place in the acoustical tile. You would shift the pans all around and wait a while , and you would think everything was in equilibrium , and all of a sudden you would hear “RIP” and there it would come off another place , and everybod y shoved pans around . • Goldstein: Is that the reason you said there wasn ’t enough kitchen utensils on board? Unknown: Did you also say there was condensate in the cross over tunnel or the engine room ? What was wrong? Clifton: Similar problem. Mahnken: You notice there was also a small dyke up there we used to divert the wate r around the rug . It drained back in the toilet then. We made it out of “pert-na seal” up there , you know . Ed read the gages. We always had condensate above the head . Clifton: Yes , but not a great deal . Maybe we can get to that when we get up to the engine root-n . Mahnken: One of the things in the crews quarters , as Brooks pointed out to me when I f i r s t came into the Habita t, was the trouble I had with the drainage in the sink . Well , Rick and John got down there , one night , in the bil ge with the plumbers ’ aid , and they + pumped , pumped , and pumped and it opened up. We never had any trouble with drainage in that sink aft er that. You ’ll notice now it dr ains very nicel y. Clifton: Yes , however I would suggest in the future a small disposal be built in. This would be extremel y useful , bec au se I don ’t know how much longer the drain would re- main open , because when water stopped flowing down the drain , and knowing that that system had been plugged at one time , ver y likely it would become plugged again. I think if you had a little disposal there that you could run and also work as a pump, this would hel p a great deal . Thompson: Let’s get around to the bunks for a bit. As far as the bunks were concer ned + you were the largest guy (Mahnken). Did you have any trouble? Mahnke n: It was not long enough for me. [ Thompson: How tall are you ? Mahnken: About 6 ft 1 in. , but I couldn ’t stretch my toes out , and keep my head in the bunk . I had to sleep like this always (fetal). I couldn ’t stick my toes out , the bunk was too short. But I was never uncomfortable . Thompson: + You two (Van der Walker and Clifton), I guess , had the (EEG ) curlers. That didn ’t impede your sleep in any way, did it? SA TTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - — — - — - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ± A-6 Van der Walker: They sure did . Clifton: It did to some extent . I think the location of those boxes could have been vastl y + improved had they been at the end of the bed rather than at the side , because there was a great tendency on both of our parts to get our arms tang led up. It is just great fun to get your arm all fouled up in those electrode s and then straighten them out in the middle of the night . Van der Walker: And roll over. Thompson: (To Wailer) The EEG cap, I guess , gave you some problems . Did they ever get resolved? I didn ’t catch the second phase when they were going to send you another cap. Wailer: You said it gave you some problems? Thompson: No . It gave you some problems. Wailer: Oh . Yeah , it gave me some problems. Thompson: Did they make changes and give you another one ? Wailer: Yes. Thompson: OK , how about the stowage lockers by your bunks? Van der Walke r: The channels that the plastic went back and forth in and slides , ended - • in a very sharp point ri ght by my head . So, when I went to bed at ni ght , I put sweat + pants over that portion so when I roll over I didn ’t take the chance of hitting it , because I did hit it once . I think that was a bad thing , and it should have been changed. You notice that I took m y doors off. I thought they were ju st in the way. Clifton: Another thing you probably noticed was that those little steps down there (for the bunks) were gone . The y lasted, I suppose , about two hours after we got into the Habitat . Two hours and three barked shins , and then those little steps came down . They are reall y sharp. Goldstein: Did you have any difficulty getting in anu out of the top bunks as a result of the steps not being there? Mahnken: No, I didn ’t because I had the strap in my bunk , but John didn ’t have a strap in his bunk . I had a strap that came up and over , but it was m issing from John ’s bunk . Thompson: That storage space ri ght by the bunk , the curved portion , was there utility to it? Did you use those things as a matter of course? Did you find you had enough storage for you r personal , occupational needs? Mahnken: I would have preferred one shelf on the top and one shelf below , so I could have rolled over w ith my knees. I don ’t know , maybe if you put an oval mattress in there or something or maybe just a pad back in there so you could roll over . Give you a little more lateral space. I didn ’t use all the shelving . I never used the shelving at my feet past the center of it. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTI TUTE — COLUMB US LABORATORIES / - A-7 Goldstein: The swing-out door you mean? Van der Walke r: No , the sliding door. Thompson: Very earl y in the program there was some talk about putting portholes -- I equivalent of fiat portholes -- at each bunk . If this was done , in retrospect . do you feel there would have been any utility to it? Van der Walke r: I would have loved to have had a porthole. L Wailer: Why? Van der Walker: I think it would have been great to look out through the window there while you are laying in the bunk . Wailer: How many times did you lay ar ound in the bunk? + Van der Walker: Well, I spent a lot of time in the bunk, Rick . Mahnken: Through the day, Rick? (laugh ter) Unknown: How about the commeriial TV and radio ? Were you well satisfied or happy with the way that entertainment provided for you? Thompson: Do you want to separate the problem , or together: TV versus the radio , or TV and the radio. Did you use them much? Clifton: We used the radio with Bob’s hel p and John got the FM so it worked for a while , and we used it when it worked -- we used the radio. That only lasted about 10 days as I recall and then something happened , and we didn ’t get any more FM at all . This was F f a i r l y clos e to the end of the mission and there was no reason to pursue it. Personall y I didn ’t reall y miss the television . I don ’t know , we seemed to be so awfull y busy down there I don ’t know when we would have had time to watch it , but it might have been nice to have the option. Thompson: At great expense as you can appreciate that furniture was custom desi gned by a leading architect for use in the crews quarters. I’m just curious as to how you fel t in regards to that furniture ? See, we may have achieved a breakthrough in the sense that now Sears & Roebuck can now get on the list of approvals for supplie rs of space hardware, who knows. • Waller: Excuse me, but are you going through that habitability list? Thompson: No, I’m no t. No , I’m looking at occasional items from cabin to cabin. I want to make sure we cove r all the land. Wailer: Has anyone touch ed on the circuit breaker down in the crews quarters? Nobody has discussed that specifically as ye t. Thompson: Well we mentioned it in relation to the noise level. Clifton: That ’ s reall y disconcerting , because it would wake me up probabl y once a ni ght because those things go off with a bang, and on that particular side right behind your BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUT E — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES + I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .• .+ + + .. ~~ ••• • . ~ - A-8 head , you ’re always a little bit alert of the noises in the Habitat anyway. I woke up, I + I si’~ pect , an average of once a night . Just came to a sensible level for a second , as a result of that circuit brea ker . Thompson: Well, let ’s get back to the furniture problem. Did you necessarily see any + big problems? Wailer: Yes , we did. You need a heavier table down there. Mahnken: One of the legs of the table would bend out , and the table would become quite unstable. We were all kind of clumsy at time s and would bump the table when we got up and spill coffee quite a lot , or soup, . Goldstein: Were the table and chairs constantly set up or did you stow them at the end of meal s? Many : They were set up. Clifton: There was plenty of room in the crew quarters with the table and chairs out in the cen ter as long as you didn ’t have 4 people down there occupying it . But when you put 4 people in there and the table and chairs , it got crowded . Goldstein: You had utility of the refrigerator and the stove even with them set up? Clifton: Nope , no. Not with people sitting there. We had utilit y as long as we weren ’t at the table . But as soon as we settled at the table , and it became a real chore to move the table and chairs about , then the utility dropped way down . For example , if yc,u needed to get something out of the vegetable compartment of the refri gerator , where you have to open the door up all the way in order to slide the compartment out -- and this happened with butter on numerous occasions -- then we would have to move the whole table , everybod y would have to move their chairs , we would have to open the ref ri gerator door up, open the compartment, and get the butte r out. I suppose we might have thought of moving the butter. But , at any rate , if all 4 of us were sitting there , + and you wer e on the in side, it was extremely difficult to get out , and get around the + other people. If you were on the outside and had to get to the sink , it was kind of impos- sible . But, I don’t think the table could have been any smaller. Goldstein: What utilization were you able to make of the bottom drawers in the bunk areas with the table and chairs set up? Clifton: Again , as long as there was no one sitting at the table there was reall y no problem , because the table and the chairs could be moved. Mahnken: We really didn ’t use those drawers very often . We kept towels and linens in there just as you had them. We didn ’t put very many of our personal things in there. Goldstein: Stow much of anything in the bunks them selve s ? Mahnken: Yes , quite a bit of stuff. Walier: One of the thing s that surprised me very much was how absolutel y clear the port was in the crew quarters. BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES - • .‘ / 4~~ • / • ‘+ + + — —w - - - •. — A-9 Thompson: You used it as a monitoring station for outside egress , did you? What was I your general impression on your ability to see outside looking through those windows? Wailer: Very good . The one in the crew quarters wasn’t used for monitoring the I people in and out, because this is just a carry-over from Sealab. Ever since that + fellow had a problem in Sealab I where he kind of got los t outside , every bod y ’s been a little bit concerned about entrance problems . I think it’ s a big waste of time. As long I as two people go ou t a t the same t ime and come back in at the same time that ’s all the monitoring you need . I was never in the crews quarters to watch anyone exit or enter the Habitat . What it was used for was an outside port from the crews quarters to look I outside and see what’ s going on . To look at the fish and things like that. It was little inconvenient . It was aligned directl y unde r the port on the brid ge , and if it could have been shifted around a little bit more toward the fuse box it would have been better. It I was a tight squeeze beca use of the panel that was located there. A shift of about 8 to + 10 inch es . I Mahnken: Every time I went back to that port I banged my head on the TV camera . I Thompson: In terms of what you could see when you looked through the port was it a sensible picture in your terms. Could you use it directly, could you use it for anything other than just casual observation ? I mean was there any real information involved . Was it great to see and recognize fish for example? Waller: Any casual observation involved there was data. Mahnken: I set up fish identification stations and I established that as Station No. 1 and I went around the Habitat and monitored each of these stations for a set period . I didn ’t continue this throughout the operation , because I got into doing other things. But it could be set up as a fish monitoring station . The one on the brid ge was more useful for this because you had a greater viewing vista . Unknown: It was also hard to keep the ports clear for any period of time. Clifton: To keep it clean enough to see I think we would have to do it at least once a week , to get out there and just run your hand ove r it; it didn ’t require a full cleaning . + + If you let it go for any period of time then it did require a thorough cleaning. It seemed like ever y few days somebod y was out the r e and jus t happened to swim up to the port to - look in and see somebod y, or to say the big pot was ready to go up or something like r that , and while they were there they would ju st rub their hands over the thing and clean the slime off. Wailer: I think we paid particular attention to the ports, and just a hand wipe would clean them . From three to four weeks on or about half through the mission we started getting small encrusting, bryozoans and stuff . When this pavement was laid down then E they became progressively harde r to clean. Then you had to use a nylon brush and then a ny lon brush wouldn ’t clean them . I Thompson: Well we’ve got limited time, so I guess we better keep pushing on. Clifton: Bren , another comment on the crews quarters. Those doors to the cabinets are awf ul . They have to be closed just ri ght and held , or they swing back open. We + all banged our heads on them , because you close the upper one and you reach down into BA TTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I _ _ _ _ _ __ I - • ~~~~~~~~~ * + — — ~~.~~~ _•.q~~~,.•- --—-~_ j~fl~~Ø4~~ • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5. A-b the garbage can , then you straighten back up and catch the thing as it swung back ou t. That was a real nuisance . They could sure have better magnetic catches . Tenne y: Which door was it? Clifton: The one above the sink and the one above the stove. You had to push the door shut and hold it . It had to be a very positive action. Goldstein: It was just a matter of adjustment , that’ s all . Clifton: Is that right? Mahnken: When I would be working at the sink, or at the counte r next to the sink , to get to the back I would have to stoop down and look underneath, because m y head was above the cabinet. There is not enough clearance. For instance , there is not enough clearance in the above portion of the counter to get the blender back there. Goldstein: Did you think the sink was too high for good utility, and working in it , and washing the utensils? Mahnken : No , but the spacing in the cupboards was bad. They were all just too small, and there were not any high or deep storage spaces. Clifton: Also , I think it would be real good to have some kind of dish straine r or drainer. A thing where you could stack the dishes in , and a draine r that would run the water back into the sink. Otherwise , you either have to dry the dishes , which is an additional chore , or you have to leave them , and they don ’t dry. Tenne y: What did you think of the ladder in the crews quarters? Clifton: Rick answer that? Wailer: I think a little evaluation needs to be done on ladders. Whether in the same amount of space you could turn one sideways common to the wall and go up at an angle instead of going strai ght up with one hand or something else. Mahnken: Of course the next step from that is to build the Habitat all on one level where you don ’t loose any floor space to ladders. Waller: Well the Navy ’ s got some of those. I don ’t think they are very desirable. + Mahnken: What , one level habitats? Wailer: Yes. Thompson: All right , let’ s go upstairs if we can to the bridge. Of course , the key event around the brid ge is the MS system, you know, the gas analyzer which mis- behaved Along those lines , what intrigued me most was that you elected to start scr ubbing with your vacuum cleaner round about 5 mm of mercury or so. Do you have any conscious reason other than the fact that that seemed the number to settle out at, or was it because around that value , or higher , you could begin to detec t sen sibly certain qua lities in the at mosphere , and might have wanted to take action on it? BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I I A- il Wailer: I don ’t ever recall using the limit of 5 mm throughout the mission. Are you talking about just when we used the vacuum cleaner as a scrubber? Thompson: Yes. + J Wailer: I wasn ’t aware that we used that limit . I thought that we used somewhere be- tween 6 and 7 mm . Of course , that depends on the accuracy. Clifton: That was sort of a variable figure that changed , I think . When we went down there , I believe that alarm was set at 6 on the CO2 meter. This was the maximum level before the alarm would go off. I think when we started off our main goal was to • keep it below 6 . Then , we slowly learned that there was nothing magical abo ut the number 6, and that we could tolerate 7, 8, and so on up the scale without any real pro- + blern s Still there was some desire to keep it down in these lower levels , so I think maybe we did have it on around 5 there for a while. Then , I think, it slipped up. Wailer: I don ’t recollect it , because, you know , we got into the Habitat on Saturday, and by Sunday morning the CO 2 was up to 8, and by Sunday afternoon late it was up to • 10. It went straight up right away, so we didn ’t have all those options going up. On Sunday the meter level was at lb I think that is where we started using the vacuum cleaner. Clifton: Did we start using the vacuum cleaner before or after the Perkin Elmer went out? Waller: Before. + Thompson: You see it just happened that I seemed to have a lot of watches at that par- ticular time when all this gobble-de-goop was happening. it was an observation of mine , that was uniquely mine , because I knew when y~u guys were scrubbing with the vacuum cleaner both by (a) hearing and (b) seeing the drop-off , and I knew that you seemed to initiate it at 5. In fact, I remember talking to the watch director at the time saying , “Watch, you know. It’s coming up now. In a very few minutes we are going tr S see that thing going . ” And sure enough it would happen. This led me to believe that y.u set yourselves 5 as a numbe r, and what I’m struggling for is whether this is anything other than a number that you had gotten out of a book somewhere, or talked to someone about, or whether it was something sensibly that you were experiencing that caused you to settle round about this number. It’ s like setting a thermostat at 75 degrees , because that sensibly is what you would like to have. OK , who thought up the vacuum cleaner? + Wailer: I did . + Thompson: What exactly did you do? Waller: We used our spare ECS scrubber canister , and John blocked up the hole with a pie~~~of plas tic , and we moved the vacuum cleaner hose to the blow orifice , and blew - the air through the canister. We figured this would get us a lot more air movement than the suction side, which it did . It was pretty efficient. Thompson: Did you file a patent on it yet? - Wailer: Oh , yes. BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE - COLUMBUS LABORATORIES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .—._. •.t_.~~~~~~ —N .a~~&. - -a.- #.. • •t+ — . • ~1 •••_~__ •— — + • + — + * • _ _ _ _ “1 A-12 Van der Walker: That canister got pretty warm. I don ’t know whether that was the reaction going on or whether that was just the vacuum cleaner getting hot. Wailer: It was both. Goldstein: I noticed that you took the orifice plate off . Waller: Yes , that was in order to use it as a scrubber . L Thompson: I guess I don ’t know if the company will necessarily get any great publicity about the use of the vacuum cleaner as a scrubber , but we are working on it. As far as the brid ge is concerned itself , functionally did you use that for your dry-lab work and report writing , and so on , your study ? What essentially did you use it for? Did it work out the way that it was intended? That is, did you have enough stor ag e space? Mahnken: As far as I was concerned there was not enough bench space to work at. Thompson: OK , what specifically did you work at in there? Microscope? Mahnken : The most popular space was the low bench next to the ECS panel and beneath it, and ove r by the port . Unknown: Did you find that you used the desk for its intended purpose? Mahnken: You could not put a chair in front of the desk and have people going up and down that ladder. Van der Walker: Could I ask a question here just to give us a frame of reference? Are we talking about improvi ng Tektite I in the site that its in, or are we talking about + what we would like to have in another one? Thompson: We are reall y talking about both . We are leading, first of all , to a nega tive reaction that implie s that you essentially have a suggestion. If it’ s a larger element, fine , or if it’ s just something that could be removed. So it’s a bit of both . Van der Walker: Well, I agree with Connie . That bench , between the tunnel and the stairs was really a waste of space. You couldn ’t work at it; it was just a storage and that was about it. Things just got piled up there. Wailer: That was where the amplifier system for the EEG stuff was. Mahnken: It was pretty useless reall y. We used it to pile our bio-medical equipment on when we were doing our medical studies. Clifton: Then there was a limit, as I recall, as to the depth of this particular useful bench. It was underneath the communications panel for something like 1/3 or 1/2 of its length . As you went toward the port you had a depth that was approximately one tablet thick. Then you had a working space that went clear back to the wall, but it wasn ’t quite enoug h for two people to get in there and spread anything out . I think this problem of counte r space , I sure agree with Connie. This was a real problem. Any of the mapping work I was doing using the light-table, and we all used the light-table , anytime we were using this and had things spread out, we covered up nearly that whole area. It would be ver y difficult for anyone to get in there. Thi s reall y meant that onl y one person could BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES L - • _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___________ I I A- 13 work well on the brid ge at a time. If you ’ve got all your stuf f spr ead out and you are in I the middle of a map of comp ilation , you have your graphing equipment out -- it’ s a pain-in - the-neck to close everything down when you go out in the water so the next guy + can go up and use that space. Unknown: Could you have used a brid ge table in the center of the brid ge? F Clifton: Not with that ladder. Wailer: Not with that great big access trunk right over the space. Mahnken : We had a little space where the spirometer was stored . - Wailer: Well , yeah , but you could have also made that opening smaller. I know you had to have it large to get things up there, but if you could have built some false floor + to cove r up part of it . . . I don ’t know about Connie , but I cleared that by abou t a couple of feet coming up and down the ladder. - M ahnken : I cleared it by quite a bit too. - Wailer: The bio-medical cabinet where all the medicine and stuff was stored , if that had been moved out , you know completely, 1 don ’t think we would have lost any room. That’s all it was used for mostl y, just a little storage space and for medical stores. - A nice big built-in light-table over there would sure have gotten somebody out of the way of the general traffic on the bridge. Mahnken: In fact , if the whole ladder system had been built right next to the Habitat as you came in it would have given you more space. It was a pretty useless work area right there between the hatch and the crawl -.way. Unknown: I don’t know how we could have rotated that particular ladder and still had a + - I safety trunk access to the bridge because that’s the way that hatch opens. Wailer: I just wonder if the ladder could be turned so you could go up the wall with the bulkhead near your shoulder , and have the ladder hook in to two or three points down + + . the line so that if you do want to get to the hatch you can simply push it out of those pins J or togg les or something . Koblick: If you were to berth a fifth person in the Habitat , R ick , do you think the y could I comfortably be put up in the bridge maybe where the amplifiers for the EEG were or + something , a bed. Do you think there is any room up there for another person? I Wailer: Yes , I think in consideration of the money and other things, there would be a need for at least one more person . In fact, maybe in that Habita t , onl y one more per- son. A person could sleep on the bridge all right. Thompson: The problem with the master communcations switch -- I guess everyone in the room does know at this stage -- in general the utility of the communications from I the bridge , and perhaps I can touch on communications in the other areas also , what would you recommend in term s of changes if any? Did you have difficulty at all ? Could you speak to each other? Was it even necessary to have an intercom between any two rooms? BAT TELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES —4~ • — - ~~~~~~~~ - ~ —•- -*+*“. ~.•- +. .- -. - , + ~~~~ . — - — a-- -- a - ___________ a — - 1_ 5 ~ r A- 14 Wailer: Oh, yes , but I think it would have been nice to have had a private intercom between the four rooms in addition to the intercom to topside in the four compart- ments. I think there needed to be a Bogen on the brid ge as well as a Bogen in the crew quarters as well as a sound powered phone on the bridge. The sound powered phone was no good as an auxiliary communications system. It was onl y an emergency system. 1 think two Bogens were needed. Thompson: You say two Bogens , what would you use the second one for specifically? Wailer: So two people could talk instead of havin g to stand in line and wait for the Bogen. You would need another Bogen on the barge also. Thompson: You are saying more line s to the topside. Wailer: Yes , j ust that one extra line . + Clifton: One other thing concerning communications. There was a tendency I think for the watch officers to conside r that anyone who was sitting and working at the bridge be free and available for all sorts of errands. This got to be real annoying when you were .~~i the middle of something and they call down to the bridge and want to check on this and that . They call down sometimes just to tell you divers were turning around and returning to the Habitat or something of this kind . In every case when they called down you had to get up, put down what you were doing, go clear over , depress the button , and say “yes ” . Then they give the message, and then you turn around and go back and sit down . This was a real source of interruption, I felt . Thompson: When you slept at night did you find , you know , when you were on night watch , that the voice over the intercom did wake you up? Van der Walker: We turned the intercom off down in the crew ’s quarters , and we turned it down in the bridge, at least when I was on watch. Clifton: Yes , we kept the volume pr etty well down so that people in the crew ’s quarters could sleep. + Waller: Now that would have been another excellent time to use the Bogen . There was + some attempt to use the sound powered phone just to hold down the intercom noise, but + on the sound powered phone you made more noise screaming through that than you did on the intercom , so I think the Bogen would have been handy here. Thompson: OK , you didn ’t have any problem in taking your engineer ing measurements and doin g the things we requested of you , I presume , in the bridge? OK , let’s pass on through unless anyone has any other questions. Unknown: One of the things you said you missed on the bridge facility was additional work space or desk space. Is there any other facility now , not equipment but facility, that you would have liked to have had in that brid ge that you didn ’t have , like a bigger light-table or two light-tables? Clifton: I would have liked to have had a draf ting table . Unknown: Why in the bridge? Why not in the wet room or in the crew ’s quarters? I am BATTE LLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES - r :.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I A-15 specificall y concer ned with things that we should consider in the future to stick in the brid ge. Clifton: Well , I don ’t know where you could stick a drafting table unless you had addi- tional room for it . Certainly you couldn ’t have it in the wet room , because that was just too wet and sloppy down there. You couldn ’t do an y kind of work down there; in fact , when we get to the wet room we ’ll agree that there was reall y pretty limited space for labora- j tory work in the wet room . I think for a scientific mission you really need laboratory space , as such , in addition to the brid ge and the communications center. Van der Walker: I really agree with that. If I had my choice I wouldn’t put the bridge and the study area together at all . Mahnken: Additional laboratory space should also include additional desk space. Thompson: You are making a plea then for considerably more work a-pace. Let me ask you this then. Is it because )kou ’ re a planktonologist (Mahnken), or you ’ re a geolog ist (Cl if ton), and , I don ’t know if this is something that John addresses or Rick , but the point is that they are fundamentally different. You don’t tend to use the same instruments , ) do you , and the same . . . You (Clifton ) use light-tables for maps and so on , and you (Mahnk en) probably u se the mic roscop for Mahnken: No , we all use the light-table -- all four of us . We use the light-table at various times down there. Clifton: And we all used the microscope at various times too. Mahnken: It’s just like Ed said . If we are sitting using the microscope or the light-table and are called on the bridge to do something when we are try ing to concentrate on something that we had to do at the light-table. Van der Walker: And we all use paper, pencils, and books, and we don’t like to have to put it all away so someone else can sit down for perhaps an hour. Then when we come back to it we have to get it all back out. We spend a lot of time putting things away. + Mahnken: This is the same problem that Ed mentioned that we ’ll get into in the wet room . You would set up a piece of equipment down there , but when the divers came in , they required more space than they had to lay down face masks and depth gages and places to put their tanks. By that time the noise and confusion and the space available to the divers almost precluded the area as a laboratory space. Clifton: What with our schedule and the maintenance, etc., that went on , it was seldom that you could work more than an hour at any one thing before you would be called off for one reason or another, and if you were right in the middle and you have all your shelves stacked up, you really don’t want to put them all away -- you have them all sorted out as to to size but you haven ’t counted them yet and you haven’t got them completely sorted out - the most convenient thing to do is to leave them on the counter. Mahnken: Just as long as the space is used exclusively for laboratory space not also as -+ a wet room , not also as a communications room . . SATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES I I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ i — .— —~~ - + .—---- -+-—+---— + —a- ~~~~ - + - - -_• ___ • -~~~~~~.~-.-.-_-+ -—l____ + I.- ~~~~~ a- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ - — - , - ‘~1 ~ A- l6 Unknown: Now you’ve been commenting about the fact that you had to remove your equipment so someone could use the same site and my question is do you just want more facilities or would you like to have a personal area for you to leave your stuff out between dives. Clifton: That would be great -- that would be the best goal. Thompson: Did you bring enough books , reference books , textbooks for your own needs? Did you have enough storage for them? Mahnken: Yes, the bookcase was the shelving above the desk in the bridge. We use that as a bookcase which I assume it was designed for. Goldstein: We also noticed that it was used as the music room , Ed , and we wondered how you progressed with your guitar playing . + Clifton: I’m not about to give a rec ital . On this business of music in there though, I don ’t know whether it was the tape recorder or the acoustics or the tapes , but the re wa s a grea t difficul ty in adju sting the sound level between having it so loud it just sort of knocked you out of your seat and barel y being able to hear it -- I don ’t know whether it was because the ambient sound was sufficient on the brid ge that you really had to turn up the music where you could hear it and, at that point it became too loud , or whether it was in the atmosphe re , or the density, or if it was the tape recorder or what it was . This was a real problem . It was very hard to adjust. Thompson: What is trying is that we use it all the time. It could have something to do with the ambient noise. How was the ambient noise , incidentally, in the bridge itself? Did you find it was too much so that you could not do your study? Mahnken: The curtains helped in the ECS room (across the tunnel) -- it would have helped more had they been a little longer. Double curtains would have been better. Clifton: It’ s hard though because they restrict your air circulation across there. Your CO2 scrubbing took place only on the brid ge , and there was no way of circulating air through except what just circulated thr ough the tunnel . So you couldn ’t afford to close that off. When we made phone calls home we took some foam rubber or styrofoam or whatever the packing material was , and when we covered that othe r end up with the packing material . That just cut the noise level way down and that worked fine. But then the CO2 started to go up. Mahnken: Are we to the tunnel now? j Thompson: Yes . . Mahnken: Well, I think that Rick and Ed and John could duck-walk pretty effectively through the tunnel , but I couldn ’t . I tried it -- I tried it a number of times , and it was I pretty painful . So I almost always crawled through it. It was pretty annoying at times to have to crawl through that tunnel . Would it have been possible to have made a larger tunnel? 1 Thompson: We’re going to have to put one of these things these automobile guys use, you know , you get on your gut and roll on over , but we decided that would run into more + + problems. OK , but the tunnel was restricting to you? .1 j BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES 1 — - I - .ç~~~ c~~r~~~ -~~ ” - - / ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ - w j ~ -- - . - ~~~1— A-l7 Clifton: I would go along with this; it was almost as uncomfortable to crawl as it was to duck-walk. Mahnken: You had to put the load down and scoot it to the end of the tunnel, then go to the end of the tunnel -- I did -- and get past the load and pull it out . Clifton : We rolied the tomato juice cans across. It was tough ge tting across John, too. Van der Walker: Well , if you would have put a port in there it would have been different. Waile r: I know -- you used to spend an awful lot of time in that tunnel. Thompson: OK. The engine room , what did you think of the head? Clifton: I still think there is something wrong with that toilet -- it works two different ways , it either drains all the water out or else the water comes up in it -- I’m not sure which is the proper way a head like that should function. Secondly, there was the con- tinual problem of having fluid through that sanitary system so that you could flush it, which meant that we had a can sitting there that we had to keep filled with water. It took I a lot of water . Tenne y: How long did you hold a flush? Waller: Long enough to macerate whatever material was in the toilet and clean it . Tenne y: About how long ? Would you say you held it 15 seconds? Mahnken: No , I think we held it longer than that sometimes, because what I usually had to do was flush it, so that it would macerate the material in there and then take my finger off of it and then the level would rise , then I would push it down again and hold it for maybe 15 seconds. Tenne y: One of the problems with putting a conventional toilet in is that normally in a shipboard installation you are pumping through the hull and out , and here of course , you have a much longer pump to make it clear , and this causes your additive to be loose. Now, one thing you could have done, and I know we’ve talked about this, but it must + have slipped your mind, is that that tube that controls the additive could have been pinched off with a clothespin. In other words , it won’t work as long as that’s drawing, so you either have to pinch it off completely or keep it going . Mahnken : Well, Brooks, as 1 understood it, you either have to have water in the chambe r or some of the additive in the chamber. • Tenney: You either have to have water or water-additive mix ; you ~~~~ necessarily ~ave to put the additive in there. You either have to have something in there or it has to be pinched off. • I Mabnken: I don ’t remember anything about a clothespin. Clifton: I don ’t either. Mahnken: That would have been the solution then. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES -, - -— -s__a - - -_____ .-. ~~~~~~~~~~~ - - — +- - • . . _ i i - ‘ ~ ~ a-.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ •T~~~~~ -- + A— 18 Clifton: There was a problem on occasion with gas backup -- you would flush it and there were a couple of times where I got some real big bubbles coming back up, and it was real good sewe r gas. Batutis : Well , that explains some of the methane that we ’ve seen in the air. Clifton: There was some methane detected and that’s a very good source. Cole : How frequentl y does this happen? Because it has to happen fairl y frequentl y to get -- for example , methane. Clifton: You always got some bubbles. Mahnken: It happened every tim e I flushed it , because I would flush it for a while until the level went below the bend in the toilet , and then I would take my finger off , and I found that I could flush it more rapidly that way if I let it come back up again and then flush it again. Eve r y time I did this something bubbled back up. Adkins: Thi s is a case-in-point for a gooseneck to trap the gas , and also perhaps the attachment of an air fitting outside so that you could take a scuba tank out every once in a while and blow your line out . We mentioned this at the beg inning of the mission. Waller: Well, how much methane did you measure? Where was this measured -- topside? Batutis: We took a whole air sample. Cole: The samples that we took back showed, for the middle and the end of the mission, traces of methane. Batutis: Yeah, a couple parts per million. You see the charcoal won’t pull it out. No , it’s not reall y bad . Cole: It wasn’t r eally bad but it was noticeable . Wailer: Well , this had got a lot of u se, and l a m sure there was a lot of methane in that 1000 foot line. If there had been much more bulk backed up in there lam sure we would have gotten more methane than we actually got . Batutis: Well, those MSA canisters that you had on a lot of your vent pipes would have taken care of any methane, and it would have sucked the methane out of the line so that this might have held it down a little. Wailer: The MSA what? + Batutis: The gas mask canisters , you know , the red canisters sitting on the top of the cabinet. That was their job. Waller: There was a lot of problems with those -- those things didn ’t work , Ed. They were wet most of the time from condensate . Batutis: Yeah , but they would work even though they were wet . BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ~~~~, -,~~~ -. ,,. - a- j~~~~~~~~~ _ ~~~ + _ ~~~;; , a-.. _ _ _ _ _ + ‘ A- 19 + Thompson: OK -- did you use the toilet for anything other than your own human waste disposal , if I may be so indelicate ? Did you use it for a garbage disposal or anything J like that? Van der Walker: No . Thompson: You ’ll probabl y find that the eng ine room was probably the noisie st place in the Habitat . Unknown : Before we leave the John can I find out if it was ever cleaned . Answer: No. Unknown: What about the rug in the John? Van der Walker: No, not the John , the bathroom -- I would prefer that. (laughter) Unkonwn: Sorry about that . Van der Walker: Well, there ’s not many of us that have things named after them~ r Mahnken: The counter there where the basin was sitting, you would get a little puddle behind it because the counter sloped in the same direction that the counter sloped in the wet room and the same direction that the cupboards opened in the crew ’ s quarters. I wondered several times if the Habitat was level or whether this was in the construc- tion of the Habitat. Clifton: Yeah , there was a drainage problem there. Thompson: How about the noise level itself? Was it loud? We can measure DB’s and + all this business but could you communica te with each other satisfactorily? Wailer: If you shouted. Thompson: I guess you didn’t have any occasion to stay in the engine room too long for any period of time . Mahnken: The intercom was ver y ineff ective in the ECS room , unless you used the ear- phones. Then there seemed to be a lot of interference on the intercom from the bridge. You got a lot of whining and screaming on the intercom . Thompson: Well, changing the Baralyme was a very popular occupation of yours because you seemed to like to do it so often. Wailer: Well, we needed the exercise. • Thompson: By now there are only about 3 or 4 bolts as I get the report from the tech- nical people. Was this a progressive thing? Or did it happen fairly soon? You know, the bolts started to drop off. Wa iler: The bolts , we never got the washers down there, we were eating fairly steadily into the aluminum face plate on the scrubber , and the frequency of changes -- what were there, Dave? 8 bolts on there? SATTELL I MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES I~I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ t.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a~~~~~J -~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / A-2 0 Wit~ ey: There was 12 , I think. Wailer: I decided that was just too many , and I tried to get a seal one day with 4 bolts at the corners and got just as good a seal. I think we would have gotten a seal with 3 bolts -- maybe 2. But we stopped with 4 and that provided the seal. Mahnken: The canisters didn ’t hold together , the lids wouldn ’t stay on the canisters , and I think Mr . Withey already found out that the lids wouldn’t stay on the canistex With~y: Somebod y boobytrapped that . Wa ile r: Today ? (laughter) Thompson: How about the cupola? Anyone got nice things to say about the cupola? Did you use it a lot? Wailer: No, we didn’t use it very much at all . Clifton: If the water had been as clear as it had been when we had been down here previously, or as it was on Easter day, we probably would have used the cupola extensively. Wailer: There was limited visibility -- 3 days is all we had , and 1 imagine we could have mapped , not distances but at least sketched in, a fai rly effective chart extending ou t a r ad ius of 75 fe et . Mahnken: I spent more time probably in the cupola during those 3 or 4 days than I did any other 4 days in the Habitat. It was really beaut iful , and if somebod y had been down there wo rking spec ificall y on fish behavior that cupola would have been a God-send. + Waller: If we had had a straza , we would have used it a lot more . Goldstein: What’s a straza? Wailer : A sonar , I’m sorry. Thompson: How did you know specifically when the days were clear? Did you as a matter of course every day visit the cupola? Or was it just casual? Wailer: No, we looked out the ports every morning. Van der Walker: You wake up every morning and look out the window just like you do at home -- to see if the dog is still in the yard . Goldstein: What about the ports in the engine room? What utility did they serve for you ? The one particularl y behind the freezer? + Wailer: Well, that was difficult to get to and that became the closest for the auxiliary scrubbers -- both the EDU and the Duke scrubber. It was difficult to spend much time in the engine room with the EDU scrubber. It whined. But even without the scr ubbers -- that was kind of a tough port to get to. I think that port would have been a lot better in the bathroom . - BATTE LLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORI ES / ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - ~~~~~~~~~~ - ~~ - - “— I A—2 1 + Clifton: Well, ac tually it was the only port in the Habitat that you could see out that end , and there were a couple occasions when we had divers out and specifically wanted to watch what they were doing or check on them , and that was the only por t you could actuall y see what was going on in the backside. + Waller: I think, though, when you would look out that other port, you couldn’t see around the corner out to the gully, bu t it could be the fac t tha t we didn ’t use the port, L even though it was the only one you could see ou t back . With one the bathroom maybe you could look around the corner as far down that way as possible it would have been + more effective. It could have been placed just behind the toilet. Koblick: Do you think the cupola could be redesigned with the addition of something like a Pitot tube for sending up spent baral yme , and things like that to the surface instead of having it as a viewing port and try ing to haul that stuff out every day ? Wailer: No, I think if we just had a little visibility and a sonar we would have used it a lot more. Oh, one other thing , the ports should probabl y have been slanted slightly down. To look directl y down in the front yard you had to put your nose against the port. Mahnken: The ports in the upper compartments were too low for me. In the lower compartments they were just fine. Tenney : They aren ’t all the same height - - the one s on the brid ge are lower. Mahnken: Ri ght -- and I had to get on my knees almost to see out of them , particularly il l was going to do any lengthy viewing out of them . Clifton: You bang your head pretty easily on that one por t try ing to get out by that cabinet where the medical supplies were. Tenney : The criterion was the hei ght of a seated man. Aside : Some general comments while the tape was being changed concerned the proxi- mity of the freezer door to the ladder and the angularity of the ladder itself. Discussion eventually turned to the barrier that was supplied to protect against objects falling down the ladde r into the wet room . Ma hnken: The guard around the ladder? I don ’t think we used it but one or two nights , did we? Goldstein: Oh , the barrier , you mean? Thompson: OK -- do you want to go to the wet room now? Van der Walke r: Oh, by the way, about that cover. It would have been real handy to have had a solid thing there or a net, because we put things behind the ladder , Baralyme in particular , and it could have gone off that backside and click -- really got someone below. So I would suggest putting a solid backing in there so that nothing could be kicked off the floor and down onto someone in the wet room . Clifton: Another point along these same lines - - the emergency air bottles are sitting right there , and those things -- when we went into the Habitat, the one right above the opening was unfastened; it was just in there loose. I kicked it and caught it as it went BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES - -.w. -.~~~. ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~. + - + + - ~~~ ~- A-22 out and started to go over the side , Those things do come loose , and it ’s conceivable that somebod y could have gotten banged pretty badl y. Van der Walker: A rubber strap or something to hold them in would be better than tieing it in -- something that could be disconnected quickl y - - not those metal clips because they ’ re just not positive enough . Thompson: Do you want to try the wet room ? You say you have some specific observa- tions about its storage space , and so on -- do you want to amplif y what you said earlier? Clifton: In terms of space , there was reall y room for two people to suit-up and get out , or come in and get their gear down , but as long as there were two people in there getting their gear together it was impossible to do any suit-up although we could do it this could be done. But if you were try ing to work in there , as I wa s on numerous occasions , you could work only until som ebod y came in and then you just had to clear + out. Mahnken: I agree 100 percent. When I had to set up that plankton stand-pipe , there we re so many coil s of w ire below tha t one port tha t by the time I got the standpipe set up, it was nearly impossible to get to the port for two reasons -- because of the stand- pipe and because those wires were stacked back in there. Wailer: The panel, the air-changing scuba-charging panel , could pr obabl y be shifted -- it was a bit of a problem blocking the trunk when you were charging tanks. If it could have been shif ted som ewhe re -- I don’t know where -- Clifton : We ended up not charging the tanks in the water , so there was no real require- ment for that thing to be over the trunk. Waller : It would have been nice to have had a 3000-pound system on the emergency air or else have a much larger 3000-pound bank on the barge for scuba air. But three bo ttles simply wasn ’t enough. I think the refill time was , by the time you got up the ladd er and go t ba ck ou t and took off again , on the order of about 45 minute s to fill if the bank was relativel y high. If it wasn ’t high and you had to pump, you could lose a lot more tim e . Mahnken: It would have been nice to have the switching panel for the emergency air and the scuba air in, etc ., neare r to the scuba charge appara tus also , I think. Because every time we wanted to top off the emergency air we had to go all the way across the + room and change the valving and then come back. + Clifton: It seemed like about the most effective way of filling the bottles was to put all + the air that we could from the three bottles on the surface and then top off and cascade it in with the emergency air , and then , when that dropped a little bit low , we just opened up the system and had them charge it back up over night or something like thi s, Van der Walker: I don ’t know how much room there is between the two floors , but I think we always charged our tanks up on the bench usually. That was the most convenient. I think it would have been real nice to have had the dials right on the ceiling , the valves ri ght ove r the railing that went down into the tube , and have the hoses on a re el , so you + just pull them down and hook them up to the tank and charge. When you ’re done reel them ri ght back up. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUT E — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A—23 Goldstein: How about the railing ? That railing and the diameter of the trunk cuts down the useful space within that compartment to some degree. Any comments along those lines? Wailer: There is nothing wrong with the diameter of the trunk . It couldn’t have been any smaller. You reall y didn ’t need a fin ladde r as it turned out -- we didn ’t know at the time. The fin ladder was wasted -- we always took our fins off in the trunk. With thos e double tanks it would have been bette r to have had the standard ladder all the way down , The rails on that ladder needed to be divided or separated maybe 8 inches. Mahnken: It also would have been nice to have the emerg ency air tanks elsewhere - - like ove r under the crew ’s quarters rather than under the wet room because that was an area we used as storage space. In addition to that , it was a great spot fo r Mora y J eels. The y lived behind the tanks , and they got quite nasty at times. I Goldstein: How much difficulty did you f ind , j ust digressing back to the crew quarters , + j in lifting the floor plate when and if you got in there. Clifton: It was inconvenient . Mahnken: It was a real finger-snapper. Rick , I think, caught his fingers once anyway on that . You mean to get into the bilge? The sump? It wasn’t that bad . Waller: You could have made the cover out of aluminum to make it a little lighter. It was awfully heavy and it was hard to get a purchase anywhere because the bunks were in your way and you normally had to straddle the thing , and it also applies with that grate in the wet room . We had to open that fairl y of ten and that was a tight fit because the post stuck out of the one corner and it was heavy. Now, if that could have been made out of some lighter material and still maintain enough strength to support a man with two tanks on , it would have been better. Mahnken: That bilge was a real pain-in-the-neck. + Waller: Also , it continued to rain rust down there , some fairly large ‘flakes at times which , I am sure , was no good for that bilge pump. If that could have been galvanized + or some other material rather than raw steel , . Unknown: Why would that rain rust? Wailer: It was raw steel . Unknown: Was it prirnered? Wailer: No, it was raw. Van der Walke r: There was rust and paint going down there that was clogging up the pump. Clifton: The big pieces of paint were reall y the things that gave us the problems -- the flakes from the deck -- and those big flakes would get down in the bilge and then they would plug up the pump. F BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES F _ _ _ I __ __ ~~~~w~ i ~ — -— -- - - — --- ~Li.L~~ ’ 1 : + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - wi___i_ - ~~~~~~1 _ + A-24 Wailer: We scraped a lot of transfer pots and a lot of tanks over that deck. If there had been a better primer , some primer that would stick a lot better . Unknown : How about fiberg lass or indoor-outdoor carpeting? Unknown No. 2: No, that would have collected too much water. Unknown No. 1: I think it ’s great. L Waller: You might cons ide r it. Clifton: We had enough stuff drop through that grate into the bilge as it was . I think if we had an entire wooden grate in there we would have lost all kinds of stuff . Wailer: Well, you have to put a grate in in sections and if you had to move a 3 x 4 wooden grate it wouldn’t be very difficult. - Unknown: How about floor tile, Rick, or some solid floor ing like for kitchens, and wha t would you recommend would be the characteristics of the new flooring: resiliency, non-skid? + + Adkins: Well actually you seem not to be satisfied with painted steel floorings. Batutis: It was a good non-skid aircraft carrier deck paint . It’s supposed to take a tremendous beating. Somewhere along the line the primer got fouled before we got the deck paint down , so we lost a good bond between the steel and the paint. And I think that the paint itself , from m y experience with it , was a good non-skid paint . Mahnken: But Ed, it did peel between the primer and the metal not between the primer and the paint. It’s the primer that came up. Batutis : It was very thin primer , it’s hard to say. It was a chromate primer which is probabl y only 1/ 10 inch thick. We just didn ’t get a good bond. Thompson: OK, that’s fine, let’s move on to a couple of other points now. How about the shower? I ask this particularly because I suspect of all the places where you had been most conscious of the fact that you had the big eye on you, the shower would have been the one . As a shower functionally, I presume it was average and normal , but it leads to a bigger question. Were you conscious , you were ori ginally when you went down , but at any time did you get rid of the consciousness of the cameras on you ? Mahnken: I answered that for the behaviorali sts , and I think that’s their question . Waller: If that had bothered me I would have moved the camera over to the other side. Mahnken: I always pulled the curtain when I took a shower, Van der Walker: There are two things that bothered me; one was that the hangers that were supposed to go in there , or where there was supposed to be an area to hang up your wet suits , isn ’t wide enough for the wet suits , and it was a real pain-in-the-neck. BAT TELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ¶ I -~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ - - - A-25 Waller: In the locker you mean , John? Van der Walker: Yes, it just didn’t hold a hanger. Mahnken: That had to do with the hangers that we got down later in the game. They J were just too wide for it. Waller: Those cabinets down there in the wet room were still probably over half full of the same food that went down , You could probably put in anothe r cabinet as large as the wet suit cabinet up off the deck and maybe even stored some tanks in there. Down- stream from the one , and just remove one or two of those food cabinets. Goldstein: You mean with a shelf at hip or bell y level for stor age of the tanks? Wailer: Something like that . In one big pot transfer you could bring in enough canned + goods to last you for maybe four weeks and have a little more variety than was in all those cabinets. Well, you might want to very carefully consider your ballast before you remove that Raveoli, because the Habitat may come straight up. (laughter) Mahnken: We were reall y hurting for shelving space down there at times, and the spacing of the shelves themselves , again, was very poor. There were no large shelves. I personally felt that the height of the one formica counter top was too low . Clifton: Absolutely, without any question. That was too low , because the working that could be done in the wet room was not of the ty pe that you would be sitting down. The only way that you could sit down was to pull that bench over and work off the end of the bench and that’ s uncomfo rtable at best. It was usually wet , Mos t of the work would + have to be done standing up, and that was table-top level so you were all hunched + working. Goldstein: Now there again the height was sized on a sit down kind of basis. Mahnken: Yes , but you couldn’t sit down and get up to it, because there was no where you could get your knees in there. Clifton: But this was only part of the problem. Secondly, there were no chairs in the + wet room . Mahnken: Third, you could never set desk material down there anyway because of the diver traffic . Thompson: What was most of the work you did in the wet room? What was the nature of it? Did you, I don ’t know, did you cut fish or what? Clifton: I was continually pulling shell s and sand and stuff like that in and making cores from the sand and getting sand all over the place. Bring shells in and sorting them as to size - - these were always somewhat dirty and had sand with them , so I was bringing r in an awful lot of sand. There was just absolutely no place where you really want to sit down and really write anything, to keep a notebook or something like this was about the best you could do. Thompson: How about John? Were you using the wet room for anything in relation to you r lobs ter wo rk? SAT1 ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ — —: —s—-- — — — — — — — -; — _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ - / LLL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - - — A-26 Van der Walker: Well, I found the wet room to be an awf ul cr owded place , and I just got tired of tr ying to shuffle around between everybody. Wailer: You tagged a little bit John , remember? Van der Walker: I was going to say that the only thing that I did was brin g in my lobsters and tag them. Then I had to disrupt everything else that was going on , so I think you should just use that room as a wet laboratory and have another area for suiting. I would move everything out of there that had to do with going into the water. Thompson: OK , now you are talking about a wet laboratory and just now you were talking about a dry lab as well. Van der Walker: If I were going to build another Tektite ltd make three cans. One can would have a wet lab and a stud y area in it and everything else would be the way it is + now . + Adkins: It might be a good idea to have a garage to park and service your submersible and to provide space in the laboratory for use of your toxic materials. Unknown: You could also use that for storage. Waller: I think you are going to have to go with a more expensive , slightly more com- pl ica ted habi tat with three cans , or if you don ’t have the money you are going to have to make the best you can with the two cans. Mahnken : But that still doesn ’t solve the problem of storage of Baralyme and food. + Wailer: No , but are we talking about 60 days or 6 days? It all depends on what you want to do and how much money you have. Thompson: You are talking less about a storage problem than you are talking about a work space problem . Mahnken: I agree. I think there could be a space beneath say the crew ’s quarters that wouldn ’t necessarily have to be connected to the crew ’s quarters. I mean you could have a storage space beneath it . A dr y storage space for food with a pressure lock sornewhere in the crew ’s quarters beneath the floor board that you could climb into and get food and Baral yme out of periodically. If you are going to go on an extended m ission , say like 6 0 da ys, but like Rick says it’ s not necessary if you are going to have a short mission. + Clif ton: Well , even with a long mission , I think Tektite kind of suffered from isolation- ist syndrome from the very outset when it was decided that we would go down with everything intact, and we would never receive anything from the surface. We didn’t need all that Baralym e down there at the beginning. We transferred Baral yme -- it was kind of a pain-in-the-neck -- but we transferred Baralyme throughout the mission. Likewise we had far more food than we needed down there. We didn ’t need a full 60 days + supply. Thompson: If you hadn ’t taken the Baralyme down and if you had the storage space available , would it have affected the comments you made regarding the lab space ? BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUT E — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES — , / - ~~~~_ l I A—27 Wailer: We want to make that thing, self-contained because originally, GE , as soon as I we finished the 60 days out here were going to be into orbit. (laughter) Thompson: If you guys didn’t get out quick enough you were going to go up with it. Goldstein: Let me ask how much functional use you made out of the stainless top (bench). I Mahnken: I used it an awful lot. - Wailer: Yes , that was a good item . - Mahnken: Except that it sloped the wrong way and you would get puddles of water in one end of it, Clifton: Yes , that was an excellent place to work on sand samples, because you could + get that sand out of there. Goldstein: But you did use it quite extensively, you say? - Mahnken: I set aquaria up on it and I had some problem with an aquarium set-up • because the heat from the dryer raised the heat in the aquarium so high that the animals - died , but I moved the aquarium over to the other side then later anyway and it was all right. + I Tenney: Wha t abou t the fresh wa ter hose? How useful was that? M ahnke n: Oh , that was indispensible. Tenney: What was the frequency of the use? Right whenever you came in did you wash -everything off? - + Mahnken: We washed our diving gear off sometimes, and I hosed my suits off with that, Wailer: I didn’t use it every time I came in. I used it mostly for hosing the decks. Clifton: You used it at the end of the day your last dive for washing your gear down , Tenney: When you were hosing your suits did you try to aim it so most of the water ran back into the trunk or did you just let it run into the bottom s and pump it out? + Wailer: It wouldn’t run into the trunk. There was a lip on the trunk. - - Cl if ton: You would have to hold the suit over the trunk. I - Mahnken: Th is wa s diff icul t to do somet imes because we would be charg ing tanks , and the cha rging lines would come over across the ra il, and you didn’t have access to the trunk very easily. Tenney : So you would just let it run into the bottom and then pump it out . Mah nken: Well , sometimes I hosed mine off in the shower , Then I got to using the shower to hose off my suits. I BATTILL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES *1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ — .- —- - -- —.- - - - -----— — - - _ _ _ - - - ~~~‘ t A-Z8 + Wa iler: We usuall y try to have a lot of turnove r down in the bil ge; and then we lost the bilge pump for a spell . After we recovered it, it wasn ’t an ything very difficult just a nut came off , Ed went down and cleaned it out and there was apparentl y some hydrogen sulfide down there or something very similar to it .. So then I made a real conscious effort to, and I think everybody did , to pu t a lo t la ter down the re and do a lo t of pumping . + Even more than we had to do. Clifton: The bil ge pump itself is located so that the orifice is at the side rather than at — the very center. This means that you can never get all the water out. And if you get enough sediment down there then you ’re going to have problems. It got to the point where the only way effectively pump the bilge was to direct a jet of water down and wash the sediment away while the bilge pump was on. Thompson: How did the General Electric dryer work? Mahnken: Why wasn ’t that a washer-dryer combination? Thompson: The unit we put in? I cannot think of a good reason at the moment, but I am sure I will . Unknown: You talked about it at first, but I don ’t recall a reason for changing it. Thompson: I think it was just having all that water around plus the degree to which you would want fresh , clean laundry as opposed to just dry towels. Wailer: Do washer-dryer combinations work as good as one or the other? Mahnken: Sure. They take up the same space. Van der Walker: I got tired of washing my clothes in the bottom of the shower and s topping up the d rain , and stomping them to get them clean. Wailer: A washer that reall y washed for once! (laughter) Clifton: Yes , he filled the shower. Mahnken: He had 60 tee-shirts. Goldstein: In retrospect would you say that if you were to do this again there was suff i- cient time allocated to crew training befor e mission star tup? Waller: I am not as concerned about . . , I was never concerned about crew training as you know, I think the Habitat should have set there with the ECS and everything turned on and going, and a watch set up on the van monitoring to see that it did not flood or anything. Goldstein: You m ean unmanned? Wailer: No , manned during the daytime, and 100 minute dives throughout the day just to see if things were all right. Cook several meals and things like that. Give it a - + week or two to settle in. I think a lot of our minor problems that come up in the first two weeks would have been solved if we had just had another two weeks which we didn’t have unfortunately. BATTELL ! MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LA9ORATOR~ES H t / I A-29 I Thompson: OK. I Mabnken: One more comment before we leave the wet room. I think you need a better - storage area for tools. Those drawers down there were very, very poor for storing tool s because the tools were too heavy and the drawers began to bind. But by-and- large those swing out doo r s were very good I thought. S I Clifton: We needed some more hangers -- metal, cuff-hook type hangers or something of this kind , particularly in the scuba storage cabinets. All there was when we went in there was just a rail. There ’s not a heck of a lot that you can make use of with a I single rail with all that sort of gear. We finall y sort of juggled things down, and we sort of jerry-rigged little hooks that would hang down that we could hang a lot of the assorted equipment on. It all worked out OK but it would have been a lot more helpful it those things had been there; I Thompson: OK. We’ll get outside now into the trunk and the exit passage ways. Unknown: Could I interrupt for a minute: We tried to design the Tektite interior as a place to live adequately and a place to work adequately. OK, can you rate us from 0 to 10 with 10 being an A as to the whole Tektite taken as a whole device. Whether it I was a good place to live and a good place to work in? - ( Wailer: I’d rate it at 8 or 9. + I’ve stayed in a lot of things a lot smaller than that and I think 18 x 12-1/2 feet was very luxurious. I think the thing was well put together generally and , aside from a few bugs, it was a fine little Habitat . Clifton: If you want to split livability and workability apart I would rate it up pretty high like Rick, 8, 9, 9-1/2 somewhere up in there in livability. It was a very livable I Habitat. There were times like in the last couple days that I wished I were back down there . In terms of workability I would rate it down a little lower. Maybe put it on • something like 6. This is primarily due to lack of work space. Mahnken: I’d have to go along exactly with what Ed said. Van der Walker: I think Ed summed it up very nicely. I would even rate it as 10 as far as livability. Thompson: We are now in the entry trunk and outside is there anything specifically + that you want to mention in regard to access: you bumped you r head enough times or I anything? - - - Clifton: We raised welts on that shark cage door. It dropped down just far enough that we very commonly banged our tanks on that, I Mahnken: The whole front should have opened up. Wailer: Well, maybe from the top too. You could have very easily had the whole top f section -- you know if the whole top came out and down a ways, you could have had hinges here just to pull this up if it was difficult to make the ~whole front a door. You might even have considered hinging it back here so the whole top opened up. - + 1 Adk ins: You could have art iculated it so that whe n you opened one doo r the top wo uld go r up and when you closed it the reverse would happen, SATTELL E MEMORIAL. INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES I _ _ _ _ _ — ~~~~~~ - — —. —.-.. -.-— - — 4 _ — ---.----— — ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ _ _ _ _ _ + + _ _ _ _ _ A-30 Wailer: What I was thinking about was that if you hinged the top so that it came all the way up, and there wasn ’t an y particular danger to a port there , if you had a real depend- able taut-wire system and an underwater pump, you might rig up a real good transfer system ri ght down to inside the shark cage. That was alwa ys a big barrier and you mi ght even , if you are a real fine engineer , be able to design some little thing that will ru n up to the cage and pop the thing up, I don ’t know. Mahnken: One of the problems that we had with time was as they lowered the pot , the pot itself began to hollow out a hole in front of the shark cage , and it became more and more difficult to get the pot in because the distance between the lip of the shark cage and the bottom increased as we worked in f ront of the shark cage . After a while I think there must have been about a foot drop off the end of the shark cage to the bottom . Clifton: I don ’t know if the shark cage is really necessary but it’ s awfull y comforting . Thompson: Comforting in wha t respect? - - Clifton: Just knowing that when you stepped out the back door something wouldn ’t take your leg off tha t you couldn ’t see. Thompson: That Moray eel that you guys fought valiently with and dispatched; I under- stand that you are getting a Congressional Medal of Honor for the daring deed . Where was that specifically located and how big was it reall y? It ranged all the wa y from two feet to ten feet and it depended on who you were talking to. Clifton: It was three , maybe three and one half feet . It was a lot bigger alive than dead . It shrunk afterwards. - Wailer: It wasn ’ t it , there were several in there . They lived there behind - the tanks , + and it was very disconcerting to come down that ladder and see them in there. There were some large holes about that big (4 or 5 inches in diameter) in the top of the base so the shark cage was of absolutely no use for the eels. They just go in and out of there. All the fishes would go down in those holes and f eed on the minnows unde r the hatch. I’m sure that’ s how the eels got in. Van der Walker: I saw them going in and out . Mahnken: I bet there were more eels back there than we ever suspected. + Clifton: It will be interesting when you guys take the bottles out. General: Oh, yes. (laughter) Unknown: Could those holes be grated in some fashion? Mahnken: Take the bottles up out of there. That would be a big help. WaIler: Oh , one thing that I forgot; you better watch your . sea water pump system . You ’ve got an intake right ar ound the side of the wet room and then you ’ve got an exhaust right there too. Lots of times when we had the lights on , it would just suck these minnows in through the f lat grille , and the y would apparentl y go all the way through the sea water system and they kept trying to block up the exhaust, the sea water exhaust. You could see them just packed up in there, but fortunately there was enough passage BATT ELLE MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES + - - 1 - ~~~~~ !~~, ---~ --- - _ _ _ _ _____________________ / p~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ j,i* ~~~~_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A-31 not to burn the pump out . It occured to me that just a piece of plastic floating around out there far enough in front of there or if you had a globe grid or a globe screen or J something other than a flat surface , it may solve the problem . Mahnken: The same can be said for fish getting caught in the screen around the base of the entry trunk. We found a number of yellow tails and trumpet fish that would kill themselves in there. Van der Walker: That’s a hard thing to avoid though. Mahnken: Well, I think the mesh could have been a little larger , and then we would have caught groupers; maybe a little smaller and then we would have caught jankinzia. Thompson: How about the way stations? Did you use them? Clifton: The use of the way stations was in bottle transfers. They provided really the + onl y means where we could, other than having bottles with regulators dropped on; they provided the most convenient means of getting and exchanging bottles. Mahnken: They were always a reinsuring landmark though. Thompson: How did you find these lines the Seabees laid down ? (the navigation mar- kers). Did you navigate on those? Wailer: No, we didn’t do any navigation on them. Clifton: By the time those were put in we had the reef mapped to the extent that almost anyplace on that reef you could locate yourself within 5 feet. Wailer: Well , they would never be used for navigation. You know, when you go camping you don ’t really depend on trail markers to move out from a tent site. You depend on + trees and things, then you gradually range out farther and farther, When you are pro— perly oriented you don’t have any problem. Well, we had the entire reef area running north and south . We had a depth barrier. There was no problem , we didn ’t need them . Aside: While the tape was being changed the conversation turned to communications. Clifton: Some people were pretty good about it (communications) but other people made themselves evident about every 10 minutes. You can ’t fault the communications for that , Thompson: It’s not so much the physical operation of the equipment that I am talking about. You know, the utility as far as the system is concerned. As far as retaining ¶ the strict requirement to set up an isolation routine we tended to use only the barest minimum in the way of communications. Sometime I guess you never rea lly were conscious of this, but we were deliberatel y, in our own conversations , trying to shorten up as quickly as possible. This bespeaks of a certain economy in terms of operations but at the same time did you ever feel the need to want to elaborate more or feel that you were necessarily being cut off or something of this sort? In other + words is there a more efficient way of doing this communication policy? + BATTELL E MEMORIAL INSTITUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES ‘1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -.*-- — - - - - - - - -‘ - - - - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~—‘__ F- - - - - F~ - t?r~ -?~ ~ - - A— 32 Waller: Yes , try not to restrict it. Make people available. It ’s ver y annoying asking a question and taking 5 days to get an answer when there ’s a particular eng ineering system involved . Clifton: A phoneline in the base camp would have solved a lot of the problems . Waller: I hear there ’s a unique technology in the United States , it’ s called telephone cables. Thompson: Has anyone got anything else they would like to bring out in order that we may free these good gentlemen? Unknown: Yes , I would like to find out if the external lighting was adequate ? No problems? All: No problems. Clifton: It ’ s ve ry reassuring to come back from a night dive and be able to see that glow , Unknown: Could you give me a j udgment as to the avera ge visibility at night? Was it about 50 feet? - Van der Walker: No , much further away than that if I look at the surface, because the light goes up and apparently travels along the surface some way and is reflected back down . Clifton: It ’ s like a city in a fog. Unknown : You ’re the first reporter of that phenomena. I would really like to know about it . - Van der Walker: Well, you know as much about it as I do now . Goldstein: Could you get directionality by looking up at the surface? Van der Walker: No , it’ s not a sharp thing . It’ s like, well , you know its that way and not that way. Unknown: Is it like a glow from one vector , and you see it upward but you don ’t see it downwards? Collectively: Ye s. ¶ Unknown: May I ask you , is the wate r clarity near the surface better than it is at the bottom ? Clifton: We neve r got up that for. We couldn’t go above 2+1 feet. Thompson: OK , anybody else? OK , in the absence of any questions , gentlemen , we are going to essentiall y terminate this interview , and I thank all three of you, and I even thank Rick believe it or not, for gracing us with your presence , Thank you very much for all the information and data you have given us. We are all very proud of you. BATTELLE MEMORIAL INSTI TUTE — COLUMBUS LABORATORIES -h _ _ _ _ 1- - ~‘•‘ _ _ _ - I - - -- /- - ~~~~~~~~~~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - -- - ‘