Today's blog brought to you by: Jim Thompson, NASA Dive Team Photographer
http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/mojave2007/bios/thompson.html


The international team is coming together at Pavilion Lake Research Project in a remote area of British Columbia to study microbiolites with mini subs as analog research for the moon and Mars and human exploration under extreme conditions.

Divers in the freezing cold water; subs being hoisted by hand winches and the beautiful raw beauty of this land serve as the back drop for the study of the ancient formations at the lake's bottom, old evidence of life on this and possibly other planets.

We are getting to know each other now, two days into the mission and the objective of launching the subs and the beginning of this stage of research has been a huge success. Top notch scientists, professional arctic divers and graduate students in multi million dollar mini subs are working close together with the common bond of expanding human knowledge of the unknown.

Thousands of photographs have been taken so far, and we are moving into the stage of underwater photography in waters a few degrees above freezing . Long hours of work and research are rewarded with friendship and fellowship, only felt by a close team, many of which were total strangers a few days ago.

Challenging days lie ahead in the coming weeks, science advancement of human knowledge in extreme environs is seldom easy.