Got data?

So we sent the lander down, and 2 days later we got it back. End of story, right? Wrong. Lander recovery is only the beginning.

As soon as the lander got on deck, Andrew and I swooped in to process the samples. I really wish I could show you some photos of the whole thing, but I didn't have a hand left to hold my camera - I needed 8 arms as it was. Out on deck, Andrew and I were surrounded by tubes, buckets, and bags. I had a pen in my hair, a Sharpie clipped to my shirt, and a notebook on my lap. It was quite the sight.

Crouching next to the lander, I felt a bit like a nurse in surgery. Andrew said "spatula;" I handed him one. "Falcon tube" and I placed it in his hand. If he held a closed lid toward me, I opened it, and I wrote down everything he said. Every once in a while, I had to run samples to the freezer inside, but when I returned, it was straight back to business.

After making it through our sediment samples, Andrew and I split up. He downloaded data from the optodes while I sieved the remaineder of the sediment for macrofauna. Four buckets worth of mud became four jars worth of animals, and I stashed them away. The whole process took several hours, and at one point, another graduate studet on board stepped in to help Andrew so I could finish sieving. I was really thankful she could help.

We also played around with the unresponsive computer. If you recall, just before our last deployment, we were unable to commuicate with one of the three lander computers (the brains that control the experiment at the seafloor). The battery had sufficient charge, so we were concerned something was wrong with the computer itself. Well, we eventually discovered a faulty connection between the battery and the computer. Half of me was frustrated that the problem was so simple, and the rest of me was relieved that the solution was so simple.

We spent most of the evening re-setting the lander for another deployment. That's right; it's going back down just 24 hours after coming up. It's a fast turnaround time, especially considering the technological problems we've been having, but we'll push through to be ready. We do it all for the sake of good data.

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