HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACQUES COUSTEAU!

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. 

"From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free."--Jacques Cousteau

"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

A selfie by Fabien Cousteau in Aquarius. It's red cap time celebrating Jacques' birthday undersea! Notice the red cap-shaped cookies! Left to right: Fabien, Ryan, me, Marc, Kip, and Brian.

It was nice to chat in Aquarius with Fabien and Marc. Brian and Kip are filming us. Photo credit to Jan Donnelly for the screen capture from the live feed camera!

Fabien told us about his grandfather's 75th birthday, one of his most vivid childhood memories. His grandfather impressed upon him, but never forced, a love of nature and the ocean.

This was my first time at the Aquarius table! Until now, I'd only gone as far as the wet porch. It felt like home, as I've taken so many Skype-tours of the habitat, watched it for hours from the control desk, and studied every inch of it during training. Plus, it's such a small space that it doesn't take long to become well acquainted! 

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

This afternoon, the Mission 31 production team shot a short video about how colors change as divers go deeper underwater.  Photo credit to Mission 31/Nokia Lumia.

Notice how colors near the surface are brighter, and you can see the red!

The same colors 60ft underwater are duller, less warm, and no red!

People do normal things underwater! Here I'm checking the time on my M31 DOXA watch. This was a surface dive, so I could only stay 45 minutes at my depth due to decompression.

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.

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! 

I talked about Mission 31, my time at MIT, my experience in FIRST robotics and, surprisingly, how my ballet training helped me as an engineer. Photo credit Bob Howard.

Andy Skyped with us from below the sea. He fielded a number of questions about what it's like to live there and his current research. Thanks Andy!

"Why Mission 31?" After explaining what we're doing on Mission 31, I figured people were either thinking, "Cool!" or "Why?!" Here's my answer (above) to the second question.

At the end of the day I found something special from one of our sponsors, Pepperidge Farm: Customized Goldfish!