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Today was the first in-cave mission to use the transfer capsule and chamber decompression system. As a matter of historical perspective, this represents the first time any cave diving team has utilized a PTC (personnel transfer capsule) and habitat system. The divers set two radio beacons in D Tunnel, one at the large chamber near the end of the passage (Scooter Breakdown Dome) and one approximately halfway back to A Tunnel. The farthest radio beacon was set to transmit 5 minutes after deployment. Brian Pease found the location on the surface later in the afternoon. Significantly, this shifted the location of Scooter Breakdown Dome at least 200 meters westward from the position indicated on former maps of the cave. The second beacon was set on delay for 20 hours, so as not to interfere with the first beacon.
The mission was completely
successful. Both beacons were deployed and the divers returned to the
transfer capsule for a total bottom time of 93 minutes to the first
decompression stop at 57 m. The divers (see picture below) entered
the PTC at 80 feet depth. Once the transfer capsule was raised to the
surface and the divers entered the main chamber, the total time for
decompression was 500 minutes (see time-depth
profile).
The underwater photo below was taken by a Marks
Products closed circuit camera
mounted inside the cave for monitoring divers returning from their
missions. Here Rick arrives at the capsule and is about to remove and
drop his scooters and rebreathers. Dangling from the capsule is a
regulator attached to a gas supply that provides life support while
the diver enters the air-filled chamber. The horizontal line is used
for stabilization of the capsule while the divers climb in. Two
support divers help the exploration divers with their equipment, but
are not seen in this photo. The image shown here was extracted as a
frame from the streaming video.
Copyright ©1998, U.S. Deep Caving Team, Inc. All rights reserved. No portion of these pages may be used for any reason without prior written authorization.
