Live video from USS Macon (ZRS-5) wreck site -- Aug 18, 2015

[Russ Matthews]

Be sure and log in to http://www.nautiluslive.org this Tuesday (August 18, 2015) if you want to watch live footage from the wreckage of airship Macon and her 4 Curtis's F9C Sparrowhawk fighters at the bottom of the Pacific.

Dive operations with the Argus/Hercules ROV system will hopefully commence at 0700 EDT and continue for up to 12 hours of mapping and survey work (weather and technology permitting).

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/shipwrecks/macon/

[Chris Brame]

Wonder what it would take to bribe the operator to "accidentally" get the ROV caught on a Sparrowhawk and have to bring it up?

[RickH]

Megan Lickliter Munden, who used to the Curator/Manager of the 1940 terminal Museum here in Houston is on the boat as part of the Archaeological team. If you see her on camera she'll be the long legged blonde !

[m50a1ontos]

It's supposed to be about a 16 hour dive. Starting approx 4 AM Pacific and ending around 8 PM. They do plan on recovering a piece of aluminum from the Macon to compare it to the piece salvaged 25 years ago. They also commented on the dope covered fabric, I didn't catch whether or not any of that was going to be taken as a sample or not. Megan was in the control van talking on line about an hour ago.

[Russ Matthews]

Vehicle is on the bottom (7:40am EDT)

[Russ Matthews]

On the wreck (8:25am EDT)

[JFS61]

Proceed with caution - Unsupervised science s in the wild with open microphones.

[airnutz]

They're over the Sparrowhawk's now, but the camera's aren't co-operating. They're trying to remedy that situation right now patching in a downward looking camera.

[Russ Matthews]

The science team was referencing the downward looking STILL camera that is being used to create a photo mosaic of the entire wreck site. You can see the feed in the lower left of the "Quad" view. Things will likely be pretty dull for the next 6-8 hours until the mapping process is complete.

[airnutz]

Ahhhh....

[tom d. friedman]

cool technology watching it live.

[Chris Brame]

One of the narrators was apologizing for not showing more of the Sparrowhawks, since they were concentrating on the overall mosaic of the site. Anyone save any images?

[Chris Brame]

Update 5:34 PDT: they're going for a look at the biplanes soon.

[Russ Matthews]

3D imaging of the Sparrowhawks is underway (8:51pm EDT)

[Chris Brame]

Screenshots:

















Testing a sample piece. The first one crumbled when the arm touched it; so they went for another:


Gotcha! Once they're done testing and conserving the girder, they are saying it'll go into Udvar-Hazy on display with the last surviving Sparrowhawk (until someone builds a flying replica ) .