Are you ready for spine-tingling adventure? Well, I can’t necessarily promise that but perhaps the “Fish Spy” will come close.
We had a lot of design consultations. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to attach the camera. From left to right: Miguel Limon, myself, Liliana Diaz, Francisco Flores, Raymond Thicklin
During my expedition in the 2011 Field Season, Dr. O’Brien and Dr. Crockett thought it would be great if my students would build some sort of submersible (yes! we are starting with the vocabulary words already) that could be used to try to catch a glimpse of our icefish in their natural habitat. There is very little existing data on this that I know of. Soooooo, of course we accepted the challenge! And I will be taking the “fish spy,” as our vessel has been named, to Antarctica with me when I travel there next week. Very exciting stuff.
Liliana was our power tool pro. Her time on the Robotics Team was well spent and she taught everyone how to work the tools safely.
Liliana watches as Raymond learns how to use the hand drill. Stunning Job!!
Before we even started we had to do research on what materials to use. What kinds of things come to mind? Think for a minute before you read on about the types of challenges a structure would face in the Southern Ocean. ……………..(thinking time)……………….Salt? Yes. It’s salty. What else? Cold. Definitely. That fact that this is salt water means it is even colder than freshwater before it freezes. The temperatures can go as low as 28 degrees (Fahrenheit, -2 Celsius). The other aspect is pressure. As you go further down underwater the pressure intensifies. Makes sense really. Water molecules upon water molecules builds up. Think of how much heavier your clothes feel when they are wet than when they are dry. So, cold, salt, pressure. After much research and collaboration with Buzz Scott for Oceans Wide we settled upon aluminum. Light weight, won’t rust, easy to cut.
Francisco is hard at work lining everything up.
Francisco refines some of the holes on the Fish Spy as I help steady the piece.
It took a lot of tinkering, drawing, testing before we ended up with the final product but as you can see, we did it. It weighs about 10 lbs. has the dimensions of 2 ft/1.5 ft./1 ft (L/W/H) More on her performance later…
Clearly our mascot, the Lindblom Eagle, is enamored by the Fish Spy. SWOOOP SWOOOOP!