ARTEMIS Ballast Dive
We had our third ARTEMIS dive last night and made excellent progress on ballasting. We had to make a few changes to the ARTEMIS configuration between our last tests in Texas and our first dives here in McMurdo Sound. As a result, we’ve had to adjust the number and locations of ballast weights in ARTEMIS to get it to sit level in the water. Bill dove beneath the ice to make some ballast adjustments last night. We hope to complete ballasting with some adjustments in the bot house today.
Here’s a quick collection of clips form the GoPro we attached to Bill’s dive helmet last night.
We use a large weight attached to the tail to hold ARTEMIS in a vertical orientation for deployment and recovery through the culvert. The end of the video shows Bill attaching the recovery weight before turning around and surfacing through the fish hut culvert. The yellow, red, and black tubes are Bill’s surface air supply, communications, and pressure depth measurement.
ARTEMIS hangs in a vertical orientation with tail weight attached, ready for recovery. (photo: Bill Stone)
Reporting by Peter Kimball