Bekah's Kitchen Table Command Center...

Today's blog brought to you by:

REBEKAH SHEPARD
Geologist/Astrobiologist
UC Davis
http://www.pavilionlake.com/information/contributors/shepard.htm

Whoa! Am I sitting down? Yes? Whew… Do you ever get so busy that when you finally sit down it feels like you are still moving? Kind of like when you go skating and then take your skates off, and it feels like you are still rolling or sliding. That is exactly what it feels like to me when I get really busy! And boy, I am really busy now trying to get everything ready for our big field season to start. Field science is a ton of fun and sometimes if you are prepared for it, it can feel like play time. However, for things to run smoothly in the field, it takes a lot of people and a lot of hours to get everything ready.

To give you an idea of how crazy it can get, let me introduce you to one of my projects and my kitchen table. “Kitchen table!” I hear you cry. Yup. Sometimes when tasks get big and complicated, I take over the kitchen table. You’ll notice that my cat Edgar likes to help, although he seems to be lying down on the job! I am trying to assemble our mission operation plan for our DeepWorker exploration this summer. A mission operation plan is a series of guidelines and checklists to make sure that everyone is in the right place, doing the right thing, with the right gear, at the right time. Sounds pretty simple, right? It is, until you realize that we have 2 submersibles, 6 pilots, 5-10 supporting scientists, 5-10 technicians, 5-10 other supporting crew people, and a lot of data. Getting all those people organized is a big job. And don’t forget about all the nitty gritty details. For example, who is getting the videotape off of the sub? Who is labeling it? Where do they take it? Who will make backup recordings? Where will they file the original and the backups? Each individual question sounds very simple, but if you want the field season to run smoothly, you have to make sure you answer all of those questions in advance. Otherwise your risk losing data! The whole reason we are doing this is to gather new information and new data. That is what exploration is. So we want to do everything possible to make sure we get the most and the best data possible.

So there you have it. Field science sure is fun, but as a wise person once told me, field science is 99% logistics. And a significant percentage of that is all over my kitchen table.