FeMO3 Dive Cruise 2008
Report Day 15 -- Monday 6 October 2008 -- Using Skype In Combination with SeaNet

Daily Reports   1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

The 1st elevator lost its floatation or
buoyancy. But how much does it weigh
now? And can it ever rise to the
surface again from 5 km water depth?

Craig, Anthony and I got up at 4:30 this morning so we could speak to students at Sehome High School in Bellingham via the SeaNet system. We had a great time fielding questions such as: Has the loss of the deep sea elevator hindered research activities? How much does the elevator weigh now that it has no floatation? How do scientists preserve specimens that grow in warm vent water on there way to the surface? How are samples preserved once they get to the surface? How much fuel does the ship use and how does the ship make power? What is the purpose of the A-frame on the stern of the ship? Have the scientist discovered anything new from this cruise’s data? How many research papers will be published as a result of the data collected this cruise?


New hot water vents were discovered during FeMO2008 in the Pele's Pit area
and scientists immediately took advantage by plastering the site with new
experiments and by taking many scoop and slurp samplings.

Today’s connection was poor during the first class; it was so difficult to understand each other we ended the call early. The connection was much better during the second and third classes. None of the connections were quite as good as our first communication of September 23. Despite today’s breakups we were able to field nearly 30 questions from 20 different students. Craig, Anthony and I agreed it was fun and successful. I regret we could not have had a better connection with my first period class.

For all our classroom communications we attempted to use the internet based Skype service. Our first communication on September 23 was quite successful. We had 2-way audio between ship and shore and video from the ship was good enough that our motions and sounds were synchronized. This demonstrated the potential of communicating for scientific and educational purposes using a system like Skype combined with SeaNet.

After the problems with the poor SeaNet connection on September 25 we attempted to use a wireless modem to operate Skype through the cell phone system. The ship is close enough to land that some cell phones and wireless modems have a good signal. We tried to establish a Skype session using the wireless modem but could never sustain the connection for more than a few seconds. Apparently the SeaNet signal is much stronger. Given the potential we hope to see improved SeaNet service.



Shawn Doan onboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson
6 October, 2008

FeMO3 Cruise Home Page