Where would Jacques want to celebrate?
. . . the ocean! Pioneer explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau said, "The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."
Today we celebrated under the sea in Aquarius what would have been Jacques' 104th birthday. In commemoration, we all wore red caps, like Jacques' team was known for. We also brought red cap-shaped cookies down to Aquarius, from our friends at Lucky 13 Bakery. |
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"The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat." --Jacques Cousteau
My visit to Aquarius today was a surface dive only, so we could spend only 45 minutes maximum in the habitat due to decompression. Time flew by! It was great to chat with Fabien and Kip, and briefly with Andy and Adam as they headed out for research. They're none the worse for wear -- cheerful and extra grateful for the cookies (a welcome respite from the freeze dried food). See Andy's video diary about why they tend to eat "astronaut food," and see this video about how we can send food from land. There'll be a video about today coming out soon; stay tuned!
AFTERNOON SCIENCE
We also collected sensors for Northeastern's environmental contamination study. The sensors are powerful although they look vaguely like plastic bags floating on lines (image credit Mission 31/Billy Snook). They will detect even tiny pollutants, including PCBs, PAHs, and potentially dispersants from the BP oil spill.
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CONNECTING LAND AND SEA
Yikes! We arrived back to base at 4:30pm, just when I was suppose to leave for a talk at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. Cutting it close. I quickly changed and left just in time to make the event. Thank you Bob Howard from the MIT Club of South Florida for the ride!
On the drive to FIU, I really enjoyed Bob Howard's stories of MIT from the 1960s. He talked about working on punch-card computers, getting drafted for the war, and then working at the Pentagon. It's pretty crazy we ended up meeting in the Keys! There was an impressive turn out for the talk. I was happy to see many young people in the audience; including a group from FIRST robotics, which brought back fond memories because FIRST introduced me to robotics as a high school student. Also attending were MIT Club of South Florida members, FIU students, and visiting coral reef scholars. The talk went well, despite experiencing every speaker's nightmare. My laptop crashed just before my talk without saving the last version of the presentation I'd prepared oh-so-carefully yesterday. Even though in my mind the slides weren't quite right, no one in the audience seemed to notice and everything went well. It was a good reminder to be prepared for the unexpected because things in life don't always go as planned. After introducing Mission 31 and Skyping with Andy in Aquarius, I spoke more broadly about ocean exploration. The audience was enthusiastic and asked many excellent questions, including details about aquanaut training and life underwater in the habitat. Others asked about my background in ballet and how I got started in robotics, which was through FIRST robotics, and how this organization influenced my career path! Thanks to Bob Howard, Gary Chin, and Aileen Soto for organizing the fantastic event! |
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