Hey All,

This week has been a busy one- and that by far is an understatement.  Abroad, our PI’s have been traveling in Norway, meeting at Oceans 13 MTS IEEE and taking part in CODAR Training (http://www.oceans13mtsieeebergen.org/)

Back home in the COOL room, we hosted glider training where Dave Aragon and Tina Haskins trained members from Orb Lab (University of Delaware), Texas A&M, Korean Polar Research Institute, Rutgers and the Naval Academy.

From left to right in the image above: Austin Melillo (RU), Alex Brecht (USNA), Tina Haskins (RU), Collin Dobson (RU), Ruth Perry (TAMU), Brendan Kahle (USNA), Karen Dreger (TAMU), Nilsen Strandskov (RU), Danielle Haulsee (UD), Matt Breece (UD), Megan Cimino (UD), Jeff Mart (RU), Danielle Quinonez (USNA), Danielle Ferraro (UD), Dave Aragon (RU).

Over the week, Challenger’s navigation capabilities have taken a turn for the worse as she has begun to spin on her dives:

In the plot above of the latest heading data, on the first dive we can see the measured heading go off the top of the plot and jumping back on the bottom, signifying a spin to the right.  The cause of this spin is not quite known, but Scott Chip Dave and a number of members from TWR have been working on diagnosing the problem.  As for now, the probability of Challenger making it to Ascension is waning and so we have shifted our sights to St Helena

Just 510 km away, Chip has been making contacts on the island to see what our options for inspection and recovery.

Finally, by turning to the south, we have for the most part avoided any possible interaction with what Antonio has named the two towers:

 

Force Wind Sea & Honor