Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/21/2009 - 09:10
Forums
Antarctic Undersea ROV 09

Hi Dr. Kim and the team! We were glad to read your answer to our last question. We hope to email you questions a couple of times a week. Here are some more questions:

  1. How deep is the water?

  2. Do you have heaters in the tents when you set up in the field?

  3. How long is the cord for SCINI?

  4. Have you seen any penguins? Are they scared of people?

We wish you luck when the helicopter can land safely.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Hall's Class

Wed, 10/21/2009 - 16:56

Michele Cross

Hi Mrs. Hall's class!
 I saw you posted some questions, so I thought I might try to answer a few of them. I'm sure Dr.Kim will jump in when she has an interent connection. They are currently out at the Bay of Sails. If you go to the Project SCINI 2009 website and click on the Daily Slog...then scroll down to almost the bottom...there you will find pictures of the area when they went on a recon flight and are now set up.
1) The water depth ranges from several meters to hundreds of meters. I'm not sure how deep the water is out where they are currently set up...perhaps around a hundred feet?? We'll have to wait and see.
2)My understanding is that only one tent has a heater, and it's the tent with the electronic equipment/comptuers for SCINI. I think I'll sleep in there! LOL!
3) I believe that the tether is at least 1,000 feet. That's LONG!!
4) I'll let Dr. Kim answer this one!! I know that I'm personally excited about seeing the adelie penguins. They're pretty curious little penguins and aren't afraid of people.
 Thanks for following!!!
 
Mrs. Cross

Thu, 11/05/2009 - 13:30

Stacy Kim

Hi Mrs. Hall's class,Mrs. Cross did a good job of answering your questions and I'll just
give a few more details.
1. In McMurdo Sound the water depth reaches up to 1500 m. SCINI now
can reach 300 m. Bob will be developing a deeper water vehicle next
year in collaboration with the ANDRILL project.
2. We have one kerosene heater in the the main tent, where we operate
SCINI as well as cook and eat. It also gives us a place to get warm
after working outside. We sleep in small backpacking tents that are
warmed up only by our body heat!
3. SCINI's tether is 400 m long, to allow her to get to her maximum
depth of 300 m and have a little bit of leash length to explore.
4. Francois, Dustin and I saw three emperor penguins on the ice near
the edge on our flight back from Bay of Sails. And Dustin went out to
help Jean Pennycook do a survey of Adelie penguins the day before he
left. We heard that a flight was delayed landing because some
penguins were on the runway. But we have not seen any in town yet.
They are not afraid of people because they have no terrestrial
predators. If you are sitting on the ice they will sometimes come
over to check you out!
Thanks for your questions!
Best, Stacy
On Oct 22, 2009, at 6:10 AM, webmaster@polartrec.com wrote:

Thu, 11/05/2009 - 19:13

Stacy Kim

Oops, I have to correct my post - McMurdo Sound is 500 m deep (1500 ft).