HABITAT OPERATIONS 



Each team of aquanauts underwent crew training at the operations site 

 with the exception of the habitat engineering training which had been 

 completed earlier in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The on-site training 

 included a diving checkout and physical examination, closed-circuit 

 scuba training, habitat diving procedures and regulations, closed-cycle 

 rebreather training, familiarization with decompression facilities, and 

 general program orientation. (see training section) 



One aquanaut was designated crew leader on each team. The crew leader 

 was the primary point of contact with the watch director and was re- 

 sponsible for establishing habitat priorities and the daily excursion 

 schedules. Each individual aquanaut was responsible for maintaining 

 his own scuba gear, both open and closed-circuit, and related swimming 

 and navigation equipment. 



Before each excursion from the habitat, which always consisted of two or 

 more swimmers, the aquanauts would inform the watch director of their 

 work area and the anticipated duration of their dive. Each swimmer 

 went through a pre-dive checkout of his gear and logged out with the 

 watch director. In the case of excursions with closed-circuit gear, the 

 pre-dive checkout was more extensive requiring each aquanaut to pre-dive 

 his own equipment, then his partners, verbally calling out the checklist 

 items to the watch director who logged checklisted items and observed 

 the pre-dive check on closed-circuit television. 



The aquanauts carried three emergency signaling devices. They were: A 

 small CO2 inflated float for daytime use; a flashing strobe light for 

 night use; and, a sonic pinger which could be monitored through a receiver 

 located under the dive platform. The emergency procedure called for the 

 pinger to be activated first, followed by the release of a float in daytime 

 or activation of a strobe flasher at night to guide the support divers to 

 the aquanauts. The sonic pingers were very effective attention getting 

 devices which caused several unintentional alerts throughout the course of 

 the program by accidental triggering of the magnetic switches. Several 

 aquanauts were more than a little surprised in their ocean floor research 

 tasks to be confronted with a pair of support divers trying to give them 

 scuba gear they didn't need and offering to lead them back to the habitat 

 before they were ready to leave. While surprising, this quick response 

 was very comforting to the aquanauts. 



The aquanauts, particularly the engineering team member, maintained 

 calibration and readings for the PO2 and PCO„ monitors in the habitat. 

 Additionally, they sampled and tested for trace gases at scheduled inter- 

 vals. The team engineer kept a log on the PCO2 levels and insured that 

 fresh cannisters of baralyme were changed as needed, 



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