January 13, 2008

Dear Hanumant:
I have a question: Do you put Puma and Jaguar down to the bottom of the ocean every day?
Thanks – wish you good luck.

Orlando Pinon Denver
Smedley Elementary
Denver Public Schools

Dear Orlando:

Thanks for the question. When an AUV comes up after a mission, its batteries need recharging, which takes about 12 hours. So, if we are using them alternate days, we can put a vehicle down each day. But sometimes we need to fix things, so it may take longer to make the change between vehicles.

Thanks for following along.

Susan Humphris

Hi: my name is Cristian and I am a 6th grader at Smedley Elementary in Denver,CO.
I was wondering if you guys have a TV or something you can play with in your spare time?

Hi Cristian:

We have a large library of movies on DVDs that we can watch. We usually watch these on our transit out to our worksite, but once we are there, we don’t have much time for watching movies as the ship and the people on board are working 24 hours a day on a rotation system.

Hope you will continue to follow along.

Susan Humphris

Hi: my name is Jocelyne Miramontes. I am a 6th grader at Smedley Elementary in Denver, Colorado.

I was wondering if after you put the PUMA and the JAGUAR in the ocean, you take them out, and the next day you put them back in the ocean? I also have another question if the expedition were to fail (which I think will not): are you going to try it again later this year or maybe in 2-3 years?

Hi Jocelyne:

Thanks for the questions. When the vehicles come up after a mission, their batteries need to be charged, which takes about 12 hours or more. So that is a limitation on how often they can be used.

The major goals of this expedition are making progress on the engineering of the AUVs and demonstrating their use for exploring for hydrothermal plumes. We have already made some progress on the engineering front and we are now using the AUVs to search for hydrothermal vents.

If we wanted to come back here, we would need to write another proposal to do the work, and that would have to be funded. Then, it typically takes 2-3 years before a ship is available to do the work.

Susan Humphris

Hi.
My name is Prudence. I'm a sixth grader at Smedley Elemantery in Denver, Colorado. I was wondering how did the PUMA get lost?
From,
Prudence Flores

Dear Prudence:

Puma got lost because it was not hearing the “pings” coming from one of the two sound beacons (transponders) on the seafloor that we had put out so that Puma could know where it was. Because it could hear only one beacon, it made some assumptions about its location and started heading off in the wrong direction.

To learn more, read the Daily Update for 10 January 2008 at http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition12/daily/080111.html.

Thanks for the question.

Susan Humphris

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