PN 5A Installation Continues

April 2010

Slideshow

Side view of Primary Node 5A is shown here on the deck of the TE SubCom Dependable, with the spare Science Interface Assembly (SIA) installed in the node for testing. Prior to deployment, this SIA will be transferred to the spare primary node frame that is also carried onboard. PN5A, when installed, will have no SIA since it is a placeholder node for potential future expansion.

--Photo by Brian Ittig

OOI RSN cable installation was completed on 5 September 2011.

As we continue to work about 245 km off the coast of Oregon, we are making steady progress on the installation of OOI RSN Primary Node 5A. Since our last update the recovery and repositioning of approximately 12 km of cable segment 5 along the final cable route has been completed. In addition, cable segment 6 has been recovered and re-laid to the final pick-up point near the deployed cable segment 5 buoy.

The TE SubCom Dependable, which is the commercial vessel that was used to install the primary infrastructure cable last year in summer 2011, arrived at the cable-segment-10 grounds early this morning. Unlike all the other cable segments on the network, cable segment 10, which is the stub-end and third cable that will be jointed into PN5A, was not laid last summer. Installation of this 10-km primary cable began at 0100h PDT this morning. As of 1130h, cable installation operations are still in progess. During the next 24 hours, we plan to recover the ends of cable segments 5 and 6 from the buoys and bring them onto the ship. We will then commence jointing the three cables to the primary node.

-- Brian Ittig, OOI RSN Marine Operations Manager, University of Washington, onboard the TE SubCom Dependable