JASON VIIJASON VII
The day started out with an
inspection of the communications tower. Along with
Crissy Torruella, I
climbed the as yet uncounted number of steps through the early
morning Florida mist to the top of the tower. Once on top, Crissy was
very happy with herself for making it to the top since the wind was
blowing and the tower has a bit of a sway in the breeze.
Looking down I could see the
RF technicians (Radio Frequency) uncoiling spools of cable that will be
snaking their way up the side of the tower to be connected to the
dozens of antennae that are sprouting like weeds all along the tower's
sides.
First thing in the morning, the dive teams
make their way to the Aquarius and the support barge in the two boats
you can see in the center of this picture.
Behind the scenes of the JASON Project are the people who keep things
running no matter how difficult the crisis or unusual the request.
Crissy Torruella (left), the
Director of Field Operations, Sandra Weber (middle) and Sieneke
Kooistra (right), JASON's Administrative Assistants are sorting
through all the materials that were shipped to Key JASON and will
miraculously turn into the fully operational JASON Project office.
Any JASON Expedition site would not be
complete without that big EDS satellite uplink/downlink truck. Late this
afternoon, the big silver and black truck rolled into Key JASON and as
a crowd of very interested observers watched, the truck, much like a
butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, spread its wings and revealed
its true beauty.
Crissy made sure that the truck managed to squeeze into the ever more
crowded Key JASON site, but the way the EDS folks handled things, there
was never any doubt that things would work out just fine.
and soon the smaller of the two
antennae had emerged from its stowed position and pointed towards the sky
with the JASON communications tower off in the distance.
In the crowd was a film crew from
BBC television program Newsround who are here to film some of the JASON activities and
their cameraman, Eddy Stephens, made sure that he got some very interesting camera
angles. He said that he has already gone through one pair of shorts
in the "line of duty".
Making sure that everything is aligned
properly, Bill Buhro does some last minute adjustments on the controls
before unfurling the big, 4.5 meter dish.
And finally, the satellite communication
station for JASON VII is ready for business...all in less than one hour.
Here is a
peek inside the truck showing only a few of the many control and
communications panels that Mike Augustine, the EDS technician will be
using during the broadcasts.
Best regards,
gene
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Gene Carl Feldman
(gene@seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov)
(301) 286-9428
Todd Carlo Viola, JASON Foundation for Education (todd@jason.org)
Revised: 6 April 1996