My name is Stephen Ell, I am going into my junior year studying ocean engineering at the University of New Hampshire. I am a part of the ocean lander retrieval, maintenance, and deployment team working alongside our JASCO technician.

We are starting our third full day on the open ocean and finally approaching the first test site! In the labs, excitement is starting to build as the science crew prepares to begin gathering their data and taking samples. As a part of the ocean lander team, we are now checking over the lander brought with us from Puerto Rico. This work is done so that when we arrive on site, retrieval of the current lander (in the water since November 2017) and deployment of this replacement lander can be performed with minimal turnover time.

One of the main aspects we wanted to test prior to arrival at the site was the acoustic release systems that enable the lander to detach from the ocean floor and rise to the surface for retrieval. There are two redundant systems on the lander that work in tandem so that if one fails to work, the lander will still release. During maintenance on the lander today, we noticed that one of the releases was able to release but not transmit its range to the interrogation beacon. Our technician made an executive decision to replace it with a spare so that both releases will be working perfectly prior to our first lander deployment tomorrow morning.