I am in the middle of a two week-long field work in Pavilion Lake, British Columbia, Canada. This is my first official "NASA" field test trip in a remote site and I am very excited to be here with the xGDS team from Intelligent Robotics Group (Tamar and Dave) to make sure our software helps the scientists operate smoothly as they collect and analyze data about microbialites.
Pavilion Lake, BC, Canada
Microbialites are rocks that are formed by bacteria. They are most often found in very harsh environments and are often many million or even billion years old. The ones in Pavilion Lake are especially of interest to the scientific community because they grow in fresh water that also support other living species. From what I understand, studying these microbialites provides an understanding of really ancient microbialites that were formed billions of years ago on Earth, and it may provide clues to origin of life on Earth and ultimately clues to life on other planets.
A better / more accurate understanding of microbialites can be found here: pavilionlake.com ;)
Microbialite sample
The software my team and I wrote is called Exploration Ground Data Systems (xGDS). It's a pretty amazing tool that helps scientists plan their flights, take time stamped notes, view and analyze video data, images, and basically whatever data they collected out in the field. They use it to plan, execute, and review the entire research project.
Allyson, a scientist, uses xGDS to take timestamped notes while viewing video and noting the location of the ROV via xGDS tracking system.
There are many things I really enjoyed and learned from Pavilion Lake Research Project, and one of them was observing how effectively this tightly-knit group of scientists and engineers were led by Darlene and her team. We operated on a tight, busy schedule that began with a 7am meeting, then a morning flight with divers in the lake with xGDS supporting, then lunch, then an afternoon flight with divers and xGDS support, then dinner, then evening debrief at 8pm (after which our team would go back to the trailer to code some more). The days were busy and hectic, and I am slightly woozy from lack of sleep my eye and hand are swollen from the mosquito bites. But it was so exciting!! And I learned so much about team work and productive work schedule from her team.
Science team meeting at the end of the day.
In the previous years, the underwater data was collected using a manned-underwater vehicle (basically a submarine). During this year's test, however, we used underwater ROVs' (remotely operated vehicles) with cameras to collect footages and sensor data underwater. There are three ROVs' and you can see one below (his name is Seamor).
Seamor is a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that goes underwater to collect various data including video and sensor data.
Sometimes the weather in Pavilion Lake would be freezing and windy. But the next day, the weather would flip and we would get nice sunny weather like you see below!
Enjoying the sun after days of rain and cold wind.
So checkout pavilionlake.com for information regarding Pavilion Lake Research Project. It's been a great fun so far, sprinkled with lot of laughter, jokes, and lots and lots of adventure coding :) And I am super excited for this network of scientists I now know. They are the greatest, funnest bunch :)