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Test Driving the Okeanos Explorer
 Do
you know anyone who recently bought a car? Chances are you
do. Most likely, your acquaintance gave the car a good look
over - looked under the hood, turned on the lights, took it
out for a test drive and had an independent auto mechanic
inspect it for structural or mechanical problems and to ensure
it met regulatory requirements, such as emissions and safety
laws. If they were really serious buyers, perhaps they even
read the owner’s manual before driving off with the car to
be sure they understood everything about the car (how to lock
the doors, what pressure to fill the tires, etc.).
As with any major purchase, it is important
to ensure the work or product paid for is actually delivered
as promised and meets your expectations. You wouldn’t buy
or accept a car with only two tires would you? That would
be a motorcycle! For this same reason, we will undertake a
series of tests and trials to ensure the conversion or refit
work that was done on the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is delivered
as promised and meets our expectations. We will kick the tires,
look under the hood and have a mechanic inspect it, so to
speak. But, not exactly…
Let us suppose in car design there are a
few basic rules that every designer uses when designing even
the newest and sleekest cars:
1. A car must roll
2. A car must stop
3. A car must not fall apart
4. A car must perform its function(s) well
To test the basic four design rules of a
car you might: take the car for a test drive to ensure the
engine worked (A car must roll), ensure that the brakes worked
(a car must stop), go over some bumps and take some tight
turns (a car must not fall apart), and carry people and ‘stuff’
safely (a car must perform its functions well).
Since a ship is clearly different from a
car, there are a few differences in function and design. In
ship design, the four basic rules are:
1. A ship must float
2. A ship must float upright
3. A ship must not break in half
4. A ship must perform its function(s) well
These major differences between a ship and
a car design require us to take a different approach to testing
the ship before we accept it from the shipyard as complete.
 We
already know that the ship floats and it floats upright because
it is currently tied up to a pier in Seattle, WA. But, how
well it floats upright is another story. Here’s why: during
the refit process, lots of old equipment and steel was removed
from the ship and new equipment was loaded in different places.
This makes the weight distribution on the ship different from
when it was originally design and last sailed on a voyage.
Using mathematical models, engineers calculated the stability
of the ship and have confidence the ship will float upright;
but, when you ask them how well the ship will ride, they are
the first to tell you, “We’ll see.” So, testing the ship’s
stability (how well it floats upright in different sea and
weather conditions) is an important test. In a future log,
we’ll report out on the progress of stability testing.
Will the ship break in half? That is very
unlikely. While a lot of structurally important steel was
removed, lots reinforcement was added to ensure it met current
industry standards. Since the ship was built in the 1980’s
and regulations and standards were different then than now,
quite a bit of work was done to ensure it meets the letter
of the law today, in 2007. We do not expect to be reporting
out on this item, but if we do, you can be sure it only means
one thing – that the ship broke in two – and that will make
for some very interesting reading.
Perhaps the most complex testing involved
will be to see if the ship performs its functions well. So
what are these “functions”? Before the first torch was set
to the ship to remove steel, a group of scientists, explorers
and engineers met to decide the key functions of the ship.
First, they determined the ship should be
able to map the ocean bottom in very deep water, down to 6,000
meters (19,685 feet or 3.73 miles) deep. The second function
of the ship is to provide a platform and “mothership” for
ROV operations. Third, they decided the ship
would provide real-time video, audio and data from the ship
to shore based explorers via what is known as telepresence.
Finally, the most important function of any ship is to serve
as a floating home for its crew members and explorers – in
this case 46 people.
In order to conduct deep ocean mapping, we
purchased and had installed a new multibeam mapping system.
During sea trials we will conduct preliminary tests
of this system and report out on how well it is working. We
expect there will be some changes made to the system in our
second shipyard period later this year but the basic functionality
of the system will still be tested.
For the vessel to be an ROV operations
platform, it needed a lot of changes and new equipment, such
as new cranes, winches, working spaces, and propulsion systems
to name just a few. Although we do not yet have an ROV
to test all of this completely, we will be testing the basic
functionality of each of these systems during sea trials.
We will be installing telepresence over the
next six months during a second shipyard period, so we won’t
be testing that quite yet.
Finally, we will be testing everything on
the ship that makes it part of a floating home for all the
crew members and explorers who will sail on the Okeanos
Explorer. Think about everything in your home that
you depend on each day. All of these things are also on a
ship: clean water to drink, cook and bathe with, air conditioning
or heating, a stove and oven to cook, someplace to eat your
meals, a place to have fun and be entertained, and most importantly
a comfortable place to sleep, especially after a long hard
day at work.
During the conversion, we upgraded the galley
(kitchen) with new appliances, installed new tables, seats
and serving equipment in the mess deck (dining room), refurbished
the Heating Ventilation a nd
Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, and many, many other
things that needed replacement, repair or refurbishment. We
will also be doing more of these upgrades later this year,
but during this period of trials and testing we will test
most of these systems to ensure they will make the Okeanos
Explorer a comfortable home for 46 people as it sails
the globe exploring the vast ocean.
Keep checking back for updates during August
to read about how sea trials are going and see photos and
video clips of trials in action. Until then, consider checking
the car tire pressure, brakes, and fluid levels, give the
engine a wipe down, and take it for a test spin to listen
real closely how well it performs. That’s what we’ll be doing
with the Okeanos Explorer.
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