Following messages (in reverse chronological order, latest first) detail the (unsuccessful) attempt to recover JACEE-11, the first full-scale circumpolar JACEE flight, launched in December 1993, which landed in about 1000 meters of water off Ross Island. Prof. Yoshi Takahashi of U. Ala./Huntsville travelled to McMurdo this year to help with the recovery attempt. -RJW ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Feb 1995 12:30:05 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: JACEE-11 '95 McMurdo News #5 - Ships and myself leaving McMurdo JACEE-11 gondola box was loaded on the resupply ship, Green Wave. The ship will leave McMurdo today. Closing of the Pole and all other Field Camps happened this past week. McMurdo is full of people seeking flight back to New Zealand. The Icebreaker, Polar Star, will leave McMurdo today, too, guiding the Green Wave out of McMurdo Sound. The way out, being cut many times, are sort of frozen, and the Green wave cannot make its way out. The Polar Star is stationed for this purpose. Although it did not make work for us, it is doing its respectable duty, and I bade for this season wishing its safe voyage. It was suggested/encouraged by several people to submit ship's formal time for search next year, as informal ops. are difficult. We will talk about this possibility soem time later within the collaboration. Sprung structure in Willie Field was disassembled on Thursday by Mark + 3 ASA mechanical technitians. It is said it will go further out from the shoreside next year. The entire Willie Field will be rebuilt in that direction. The JACEE-13 of this year is the greatest crop for the JACEE, logging 300 hours. Let us have these in the next few years. Now, it is time to process JACEE-13. I am leaving here this morning. Steven Peterzen, this evening. Best regards, Yoshi Takahashi 2/11/95 7:30 am Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 1:28:32 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: JACEE-11 95 McMurdo News #4 - We went, but POLAR STAR aborted the drag We went to the site to drag three target points with POLAR STAR> The Captain of the POLAR STAR did not let the ship go to the site, staying away 300 m more away against the shore. He gave a flat order that he will not do dragging, because, "there are three icebergs around the targets, and , which are anyway too close to the shore for this ship. The wind is too strong and the tidal current (13 knots) would not let ship navigate at as slow as 2 knots. We do not want a risk in case the engine fails and drift into undesirables>" Thus, he ordered the ship to head back to McMurdo, telling Steven and me that we should be back to McMurdo by a helicopter. There were no possibilities to question or discuss. Even when he was reminded that the POLAR SEA freely went and did drag several times with more severe weather condition, he did not change face or responded at all. The last chance of this year for drag was not a failure, but a simple "abortion". Grapple and weight were not even connected to the drag wire. No debates or protests possible with this captain. No opinions were invited/allowed. We must have had a great luck last year in this sense. Unfortunate for us this time was that the POLAE SEA left McMurdo Sound before the end of our PALMER operation, and it was POLAR STAR for us to depend on a drag. I am going to see Dwight Fisher (NSF rep) tonight when he comes back from the Pole. It seems this year's search is practically over. POLAR STAR does not have "machine time" to spare. I am sorry for the bad news. What we have had are Bathymetric data and sidescan data for future drag. Best regards, Yoshi 2/7/95 6:30 pm Date: Sun, 5 Feb 1995 19:00:02 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: JACEE-11 1995 McMurdo News #3 - PALMER's fishing unsuccessful JACEE-11 is still in Wohlschlag Bay. The search effort with the N.B. PALMER was not successful. The Icebreaker will go to the area tomorrow to drag the candidate spots. We finished 48 hours ops. with the PALMER. It took a whole day just to make SeaBeam 2100 scan only. The almost entire Wohlschlag Bay was mapped for depth, which might be a great data in future for some geologists. This was done to find best paths to make flying sidescan. Careful sidescan began at 7:00 am on Sunday (2/5). Big dissapointment was that the wire to hang "a fish" sonar was only 1,000 m long for the believed length of 3,000. (Dr. John Anderson was mad and sad about this fact, as their own work depends on sidescan at 1,000 deep. An error in procurement document might have existed for the unit, m - ft, perhaps?). As the ship drags the "fish", it needs about x 3 - 4 times of the depth. The sidescan target area was 450 - 600 m deep. The sidescan is powerful if flown at about 10 - 20 m above the bottom. The fish did not go any deeper than 300 m, and the scan resolution was very much limited for our purpose by this condition. Anyway, several cruises of sidescan were made for detailed look at the floor for objects. Most of the time, however, many pack ice on the sea surface reflected its pattern, and made blurring of the image data, particularly at around the last GPS-point area. Repeated scans and waiting for ice plates to drift away took for about 8 hours. Experts on the ship picked up three weak potential target objects at different locations. The first target was a small square-like strong refector connected with absorptive odd-shaped something. It was right around the last GPS position and also at the point where the Icebreaker last year hooked and lost "something-big." The second and third targets were about 500 north of the first point. Nonetheless, the image gave an impression of the "potential candidacy" only, and no clear, dramatic conviction. As icebergs and packices were so harmful for the wire and the "fish", the sidescan was wrapped up at about 5:00 pm. Drag-operation followed, and another dissapointing drawback was found in its limited drag-capability. It can't make drag-ops. with ship's motion. It has to be done craning down the grapple for 1.5 km length while the ship is in hault. Then slowly move the ship for 500 m - 1 km over the target position. Stop the ship again, and winch up the wire so that the wire drag the length between the grapples and anchor-weight's position to the ship position. Then, the wire must be totally winched up before the ship move again to take the position for a next sweep. Just one sweep takes 3 hours for a drag of only 500 m. We had time left only for three sweeps at the first "target" only. No bites, no great wire tension was recognized. The work was over by 3:00 am on Monday, and we came back to McMurdo at 9:00 am. After disembarkation, at the NSF Representative's office, we were proposed to get on board "POLAR SEA" tomorrow for one day drag. I was exhausted and did not have a big hope. I wanted to decline it. However, it was already arranged by NSF-Chalet, so we must go tomorrow for winding drag ops. ...Only few hopes reamain: 2We left two potential target points undragged. No winding drag was made for the first target with the PALMER's operation. My personal feeling is that there remains very little possibility of getting JC-11. Despite all the provisions of the available resources and great wills of many people, the depth is just too great, and the target is too uncertain, evidenced after the PALMER's operation. Just too much water for us. Wish to have a chinese sea-water sucker in a chinese fable who drinks up all the water. Best regards, Yoshi 2/6/95 1:00 pm Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 13:10:10 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: JACEE-11 '95 McMurdo News #2 Dear JACEE, The NATHANIEL B. PALMER is soon leaving McMurdo at 10:00 am on February 4th. Steven and I are just getting on board. The dedicated cruise for the JACEE-11 is for 48 hours (MACHINE TIME!). POLAR SEA and POLAR STAR, two icebreakers, are hovering around the MCMURDO SOUND in backing up PALMER for possible rescue, as the Wohlschlag Bay is still covered with large iceplates. POLAR STA ha sbeen badly damaged and computer cruising was disabled. It was repaired just yesterday (after 2 weeks of trouble) at the McMurdo Icepier. POLAR SEA (we used last year) is out near McMurdo. A huge iceberg, 2 x 8 miles, is heading in the area, which is bothering us. Hope it will not block Wohlschlag Bay area where we will be working. A 300 lbs. weight for drag and two new grapple forks were completed in the machine shop. They are already at dock-point 9 on the Icepier for embarking. The crate of JACEE-13 tools and gondola was packed up today in the Willie Field for ship out to U.S. The gondola, broken and abandoned in Victoria Land, will not come back, while the JACEE box has been left unpacked. I enjoyed crating it alone, though the crate boards were little too heavy for me. UCB (two stays) and NSBF (3 remained) were too busy side-by-side with me, also for crating of about a few truck-full materislas/equipments. They will leave this morning. No more planes/helicopters will fly to recover JC-13 gondola or HIREGS SIP. If we had JC-13 gondola, it was a good calibration object for flying sidescan, (NSF recommended to bring it on board PALMER and drop it in the area). Steven requested an immediate plane flight to go to Victoria Land, but time was too short to do so. Dr. John Anderson still wants to do some calibrations for the surveying height from the sea-bottom in order not to collide the fish with cliffs. It will be a very tense operation, as the million dollar equipment is a virgin and will be first used for us but in the very rugged area with a high risk. I asked Dr. Anderson to avoid high risk operations unless imperative by his judgements. Hope we will be able to see the "target" without hurting the sidescan sonar. HIREGS came back yesterday, broken, after landing with chute open on ground. dragging the gondola for a few miles. Chute and SIP are gone. HIREGS data log (by JOHN BARBER) for almost the similar path with JACEE-13 shows 548 hours at FLOAT. Record breaking long duration flight, 1.8 times JACEE-13's. Unusual, cannot be a future reference. Still in the Willie Field, we have 3 emulsion crates, waiting for packing with the JACEE-11. Hope they will be filled on Feb. 6 or 7th. Jeff gave me a sensible advice to wrap up the gondola in water with a cargo-net to save chambers from flying apart in case aluminium frames (likely eroded and deteriorated) collapse when coming out of water. This measure is taken and passed to PALMER. The PALMER staffs were aware of this sort of danger, and they have many suitable nets on board. Good double check was done. Thanks to Jeff and his Dumand colleagues for realistic advices and cautions. Best regards, Yoshi 2/4/95 9:00 am Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 16:01:04 -0600 (CST) From: TAKAHASHI@ssl.msfc.nasa.gov Subject: JACEE-11 1995 News #1 Dear JACEE, Just arrived at McMurdo. Met with NSF rep. and others. The Palmer operation is firmed set up for 48 hours from Feb. 4th. The plan is (1) S-145 (S. Peterzen) and S-147 (YT) and interested NSF + ASA personnel (for training) will be on board, while other science teams will not. Dr. Anderson of Rice will conduct the ordering of flying the side-scan sonar and be on board throughout the operation. We will use three kinds of hooks. Upon locating the gondola, the PALMER will try dredging up. The Icebreaker will be in the area around the 10th of Feb., but the PALMER will do the job without waiting the POLAR DUKE. I am impressed by the degree of interests and confidence built up here and in NSF CONUS that made this recovery mission permitted. In last February 15th, Simon Stevenson gave all OK's but NSBF CONUS had other concerns and the second mission did not happen. In April, the idea was almost put into a permanent rest. Dale Chayes (Columbia Univ. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) is on board the PALMER. He is an expert in such a hunt under the sea like our JACEE-11. He has several experiences with all the successful records. He advised NSF_ASA to modify Grapple forks, and Ron Nugent has already used machine shop at McMurdo to tailor the hooks to Dale's spec. This happened only after Jan. 25th meeting of Steven Peterzen with Dwight Fisher (NSF rep.), Steve Kottmeier (NSF) and Ron Nugent (ASA). Very rapid progress with FAXes & e-mails between Palmer and McMurdo. The plan Dale and Steven have are the following: First, at the JACEE-11 last GPS position, a high quality bathymetric survey will be made followed by a detailed survey with a towed high resolution sidescan sonar. If we identify suitable targets, we would attempt to grapple for the package. The bathymetric survey would be done with the SaeBeam 2100 / 12 KHz formed-beam hull-mounted swath mapping sonart to "provide an accurate and detailed map of the high probability search area. We would cover about 60 square kilometers in six hours of surveying (at 5 knots) with approximately 100% coverage." (from e-mail of Dale Chayes, Jan. 25th). Dale gave a lot of cautions and warning about the"survival of package" during the "abusive" grapping and winching up. Mechanical integrity of Aluminum frames of the gondola was seriously questioned by him. Will it hold to keep chambers after abusive lift? He does not want to "shred" plates by a brutal grappling, and want to make sure where to target for grappling. The NSF Rep., Dwight Fisher, is very much enthusiastic in this operation, and other NSF chiefs and engineers in McMurdo are surprisingly positive for a chance of recovery. As of last year, few believed it will go. Now, it is just that everyone is in a strong corporation. After reading documents of Steven handed to me, I realized how swiftly and creatively the things were organized in the last 2 weeks. I will not be able to send news until February 6th evening. Best regards, Yoshi Feb. 2, 1995 10:00 am