The very happy story with the grappling hook
When I was in high school German class, we did a unit on poetry. I don't remember most of the poems we read, but one that still sticks in my mind was called "Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug." Translation: "The very sad story with the lighter." It's about a little boy who is home alone and starts playing with a lighter and accidently lights the house on fire. Thing is, the poem is two pages long and contains detailed descriptions of the fire – first the tablecloth catches on fire, then the curtains, then a cat runs through the room and gets licked by the flames. The situation just spirals out of control. It is a horribly weird poem.
Today, I bring you the exact opposite of a disturbing life lesson in rhyme. Here is an uplifting tale in prose – I call it "The very happy story with the grappling hook."
Once upon a time, there was a group of intrepid scientists at sea on R/V Polarstern. They traveled to the high Arctic to study the ecosystem of the deep sea. One of the scientists had brought a plankton pump on board, and her colleagues mounted the pump on a lander that carried it to the seafloor and back. Three times they used the lander to collect rare, valuable samples of deep-sea larvae, but on the fourth deployment, the lander did not come back. The scientists signaled the lander to release, but the floats did not come to the surface. They pinged and pinged, but the lander still did not respond. Ice surrounded the ship, making it very hard for the captain to maneuver. Finally, the chief scientist said they would have to the leave the lander where it was and come back to rescue it later.
[That's right, friends, the larvae lander was lost for about two weeks. Well, not exactly lost. We knew exactly where it was and could even talk to it using acoustic signals; we just couldn't get it back. You might have noticed my last few posts have focused more on the mooring samples – yep, that's because there were no pump samples to be had. Any larva that I've mentioned collecting since we were at the northern stations came from a small hand net towed at the surface. Let's get back to the story.]
"What are we going to do?" asked the larval biologist. "I need the lander to collect my samples!"
"Don't worry," answered the chief scientist, "you'll need to be patient, but I have a plan."
Two weeks went by and the lander waited for the scientists to return. Meanwhile, engineers on board Polarstern were perfecting a new method for rescuing lost equipment. They recovered a crawler from the seafloor and prepared to retrieve the lander in the same way. Using a towed camera system, the scientists could see what lay below them on the seafloor. The towed camera system was named OFOBS. The scientists dangled grappling hooks from the OFOBS frame to grab the lost lander, but they also had a secret weapon – MiniROV. MiniROV was a small robotic vehicle that rode on the back of OFOBS. Together, OFOBS and MiniROV could save the day!
[Ok, side note: MiniROV was built by AWI engineers using what essentially amounts to spare parts, and it has been the single most valuable asset of this expedition. Hooray for quality engineering! Now back to the story.]
OFOBS and MiniROV descended to the seafloor on a cable attached to the ship. All around them, ice covered the ocean, and soon it was very dark. OFOBS turned on its lights and drifted along behind the ship, searching for the lander.
Back on the ship, the scientists watched anxiously on the screen. A large object appeared in the side-scan sonar – it had to be the lander! One of the scientists called the captain on the bridge and told him to move toward the object. As the ship carefully glided through the ice, OFOBS was poised to snag the lander with a grappling hook. OFOBS tried and tried to grab the lander, but every time, the hooks just missed the frame. Next, it was MiniROV's turn to try.
MiniROV spun its thrusters as hard as it could and slid off of the mounts on OFOBS' back. Using the camera's lights as a guide, MiniROV headed toward the lander. The current was very strong. MiniROV tried three times to hook the lander, but each time, it was swept away by the current. Finally, MiniROV tried a different approach – coming from the side so that the current carried the hook into the lander. It worked! OFOBS and MiniROV had saved the lander!
Slowly, Polarstern raised the equipment to the surface. The ship's crew worked very hard to bring all three pieces on board Polarstern, and they all arrived intact. All the scientists huddled in their jackets on Polarstern's deck to watch the recovery. A walrus swam past the ship and stuck his head out of the water to see what was going on. When the lander was safe, the larval biologist cheered! She and her student spent all evening analyzing the larval sample the pump had collected. And they lived happily ever after.
[Ok, I did not set out to write this as a children's story, but it kind of works! The Adventures of OFOBS and MiniROV – two humble deep-sea vehicles out to rescue lost equipment and find themselves. Who wouldn't want to read that?!]
Today, I bring you the exact opposite of a disturbing life lesson in rhyme. Here is an uplifting tale in prose – I call it "The very happy story with the grappling hook."
Once upon a time, there was a group of intrepid scientists at sea on R/V Polarstern. They traveled to the high Arctic to study the ecosystem of the deep sea. One of the scientists had brought a plankton pump on board, and her colleagues mounted the pump on a lander that carried it to the seafloor and back. Three times they used the lander to collect rare, valuable samples of deep-sea larvae, but on the fourth deployment, the lander did not come back. The scientists signaled the lander to release, but the floats did not come to the surface. They pinged and pinged, but the lander still did not respond. Ice surrounded the ship, making it very hard for the captain to maneuver. Finally, the chief scientist said they would have to the leave the lander where it was and come back to rescue it later.
[That's right, friends, the larvae lander was lost for about two weeks. Well, not exactly lost. We knew exactly where it was and could even talk to it using acoustic signals; we just couldn't get it back. You might have noticed my last few posts have focused more on the mooring samples – yep, that's because there were no pump samples to be had. Any larva that I've mentioned collecting since we were at the northern stations came from a small hand net towed at the surface. Let's get back to the story.]
"What are we going to do?" asked the larval biologist. "I need the lander to collect my samples!"
"Don't worry," answered the chief scientist, "you'll need to be patient, but I have a plan."
Two weeks went by and the lander waited for the scientists to return. Meanwhile, engineers on board Polarstern were perfecting a new method for rescuing lost equipment. They recovered a crawler from the seafloor and prepared to retrieve the lander in the same way. Using a towed camera system, the scientists could see what lay below them on the seafloor. The towed camera system was named OFOBS. The scientists dangled grappling hooks from the OFOBS frame to grab the lost lander, but they also had a secret weapon – MiniROV. MiniROV was a small robotic vehicle that rode on the back of OFOBS. Together, OFOBS and MiniROV could save the day!
[Ok, side note: MiniROV was built by AWI engineers using what essentially amounts to spare parts, and it has been the single most valuable asset of this expedition. Hooray for quality engineering! Now back to the story.]
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| Illustration by Kharis Schrage and Tobias Strickmann |
Back on the ship, the scientists watched anxiously on the screen. A large object appeared in the side-scan sonar – it had to be the lander! One of the scientists called the captain on the bridge and told him to move toward the object. As the ship carefully glided through the ice, OFOBS was poised to snag the lander with a grappling hook. OFOBS tried and tried to grab the lander, but every time, the hooks just missed the frame. Next, it was MiniROV's turn to try.
MiniROV spun its thrusters as hard as it could and slid off of the mounts on OFOBS' back. Using the camera's lights as a guide, MiniROV headed toward the lander. The current was very strong. MiniROV tried three times to hook the lander, but each time, it was swept away by the current. Finally, MiniROV tried a different approach – coming from the side so that the current carried the hook into the lander. It worked! OFOBS and MiniROV had saved the lander!
 |
| Illustration by Kharis Schrage |
[Ok, I did not set out to write this as a children's story, but it kind of works! The Adventures of OFOBS and MiniROV – two humble deep-sea vehicles out to rescue lost equipment and find themselves. Who wouldn't want to read that?!]
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