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Participant Interview:
June-July 2000
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NeMO Date: June 30, 2000
Ship's Location: 44 40.0'N/130 21.5'W

 
         
         
 

Participant Interview:
Mike Stapp
Electrical Engineer
PMEL Engineering Development Division

Jeff: What's projects are you working on during NeMO 2000?
Mike: Primarily the extensometers. I'm an electronics engineer so I help fix other electronic devices. If something breaks in the science party, they'll probably ask me to fix it.

Jeff: How do the acoustic extensometers work?
Mike: We are in a volcanically active area and where the scientists think there might be spreading of the sea floor, we put 10 or 12 extensometers opposite each other in a line, perpendicular to the spreading center. Each extensometer will be roughly 100 meters apart. Once a day, at various time slots, 2 units wake up and will range (measure) acoustically, like sonar, the distance to each other. They will also measure the temperature because it's important in order to calculate the sound velocity. We also have extensometers 200 meters on either side to get an overlap. If one dies, you still have data collection taking place.

Jeff: Where are the data stored?
Mike: They store the data internally and we come by once a year with an IR (infrared wavelength sensor) on an ROV like ROPOS. We can then control the extensometer from a laptop on the ship. I have to work with the ROPOS team to coordinate this process.

Jeff: How long do the extensometers stay on the bottom of the ocean?
Mike: The updated version is designed to have a battery life of 5 years. That way you don't have to pick it up every year, change the batteries, and dump the data. If everything's working right all you need to do is reset the clocks because the clocks in the extensometers drift slowly over time.

Jeff: Were you involved with the design of these instruments?
Mike: I did all the electronics and the software for the extensometers; the insides of it. Chris Meinig designed the outer part of it, including the mast, which raises 3 meters off the sea floor. The height prevents the instruments from getting in a "shadow" zone of rocks on the bottom, where no signal is picked up.

Jeff: What is the best part about your job?
Mike: I like the variety because PMEL has several groups of scientists that have different interests and projects they're working on. Our PMEL engineering group supports all of them. When I'm not working on extensometers I've got other things. It's nice for me to use some of my creativity though engineering. It's how I get my kicks.

 

Mike Stapp working on the electronics of the extensometers aboard the Ron Brown.