Project Summary for 2006-06: Operational support for Aquarius Reef Baseoratory
AQUARIUS operations for 2005 will include three major types of projects that comprise a full 80-day operational year: 1) core science projects (30 days), 2) NASA partnership missions (35 days); and 3) operational support missions (equivalent to 25 days). The latter operational mission involves the following major tasks: general maintenance on all habitat systems, the Life Support Buoy and all its support equipment and mooring system, vessel maintenance and overhaul on three AQUARIUS support boats, yearly rebuild of all staff and aquanaut diving gear, and refurbishment and deployment of the underwater habitat chiller/conditioner, battery pods, underwater fill stations, aquanaut excursion lines, and waystation communication/air supply umbilicals. A staff saturation mission will also be conducted prior to the start of the 2005 science mission season, serving both as a training mission for staff and a check dive for all newly maintained and refurbished systems and procedures.
A major scheduling factor for 2005, equivalent to at least 20 saturation support days, is the work required to maintain AQUARIUS' American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) certification as a +A1 underwater habitat. ABS requires that AQUARIUS undergo an annual underwater survey or inspection by a third party inspector and it additionally requires a Special Periodical Survey every three years to maintain classing. The next Special Periodical Survey is due three months either side of July 2005, three years since the last Special Periodical Survey in July 2002. ABS is accustomed to requiring this survey be done in dry dock, as they do with similarly inspected diving submersibles. In 2002, ABS agreed to a request to allow the Special Periodical Survey be done in situ, in lieu of dry docking, and the survey was completed and classing continued. At that time, ABS indicated that next time they wanted to see the habitat in dry-dock, so they could inspect exterior hull penetration valves internally, something they inquired about in 2002, but limited to inspection of valves only accessible in the dry portion of the wet porch. In order to support any science missions in 2005, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars in retrieval and dry-dock costs (habitat retrieval and transport to dry dock alone in 1996 cost $180K), it was decided to request another in situ Special Periodical Survey for 2005. Dale Anderson, the engineer supervising AQUARIUS' construction in 1986, was again contracted to pursue this effort with ABS.
In an effort to proactive in anticipation of the ABS' 2002 request, we plan to provide internal (dry) inspection of the exterior valves in 2005. With assistance from US Navy Diving, NURC is prepared to remove the old ball valves for inspection by ABS, but to then replace them with better CPV globe valves designed for underwater service, valves that wouldn't normally be feasible to purchase due to their high cost. These valves have been supplied to NURC at no cost, and they will be upgrades to the present systems. During the saturation missions in December 2004, Navy divers field tested an underwater laser imager and recorded hull measurement data using the device, and conducted additional preparations for the exterior work required in 2005. It is planned that data generated by the laser imager will provide dimensions for the construction of a small (3 foot by 4 foot by 3 foot) cofferdam that will be used to change out the 10 exterior valves on the entry lock, and the 14 valves on the main lock. Use of the cofferdam will enable the valves to be replaced "in the dry", but at a considerable savings over dry docking the entire habitat.
In addition to replacement and replumbing of exterior hull valves, it is planned to change out high pressure supply valves on onboard air flasks, remove and replace at least one potable water tank, and install new electrical penetrators. It is envisioned that additional unplanned tasks may be added related to all the underwater work listed here.
Following the ABS related underwater work on AQUARIUS, there will be a staff saturation dive of undetermined length to provide a "shakedown" of systems, provide additional bottom time for set up of underwater facilities, and continue training for less experienced staff. Normal science mission saturation dives will then commence for 2005, with maintenance, repairs, and upgrades conducted throughout the year, ending with retrieval of underwater facilities for refurbishment for the 2006 mission season.
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