Dale Andersen’s Astrobiology Field Report 30 November 2015

November 30, 2015 6:46:13 AM EST: Today we continue to melt a dive hole through the 3 meter thick lake ice. I hope it will be completed later today – if so, I will spend tomorrow getting the diving gear sorted, prepare the full face masks and get the tanks pumped up. The compressor will likely have to stay inside the weatherport with me tonight so its nice and warm tomorrow when I start it up.

Otherwise the compressor oil and engine oil are too thick, making starting a bit problematic. Sampling the lake continues as well. We retrieved the sensor arrays we set out in the two basins last year and have downloaded the data. It looks like they all worked providing a years worth of data for parameters such as temperature, light, chlorophyll, and water level.

We have also been busy pulling samples for water isotopes and some of that analysis will take place here at Lake Untersee using a portable water isotope analyzer developed by Los Gatos Research of Mountain View, CA. All for now, time to head back over to the dive hole to check on its progress.