[PSUBS-MAILIST] Public Outreach Program

[Jon Wallace <jonw@psubs.org>]

Psubbers,

One of the areas that I hope we can expand on this year is an "outreach" 
program where we expand our interest beyond concentration of fabrication 
issues and delve into dive operations, education, and community 
involvement with our submersibles.  Construction is only one phase of 
owning a submersible which when finished inevitably leads to the 
question "Now what?"

Because of the uniqueness of our vessels, we have a unique opportunity 
to use them for much more than just a short spin under the lake.  As I 
have mentioned in previous emails as a means of illustration, backyard 
astronomers make useful contributions to science and education by 
accounting for the vast majority of newly discovered comets, monitoring 
variable stars, and tracking asteroids.  While the professional 
astronomers are using Hubble to unlock the depths of the universe and 
test theories of relativity, the backyard astronomers are keeping an eye 
on areas of the sky closer to home that their smaller instruments are 
able to adequately monitor.  Likewise, we also have the ability to make 
useful contributions to science and education related to oceanographic 
study and underwater environments.  While the professionals study 
tube-worms and tectonics tens of thousands of feet under the oceans 
surface in multi-million dollar submarines, there's a large area of 
ocean bottom not regularly being monitored or investigated between 120 
and 1,000 feet.

I raise this issue once again because it has come to my attention that 
just a few days ago a conference was held in the Washington DC area 
sponsored by Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society with a NOAA 
representative as the primary speaker, to cross-pollinate ideas between 
various agencies and specialties involved with undersea exploration and 
research including technical diving and manned submersibles.  I have it 
on good authority that PSUBS was brought up during informal 
conversations by people attending this conference and discussing the 
involvement of psubs in programs that further ocean conservation, 
science, or education.  If realized, this could mean providing useful 
contributions to scientific research while at the same time enjoying 
your submersible.

This then seems like a good reason, and time, to bring this topic up 
once again.

Of course, such oceanographic research is only one possibility and there 
are plenty of other opportunities that you can help with in terms of 
public outreach.  How about sponsoring a public display of your 
submersible?  Or what about contacting your local indoor shopping mall 
and offering to put your sub on display for a week (roped off of 
course).  Have you ever considered contacting the science department of 
your local school and offering to talk about underwater diving in a 
submarine, or bringing your sub to the school and explaining how it 
works.  Trust me, I was a member of the school board for 9 years and 
schools LOVE that kind of interaction.  Most towns and cities beg to 
find participants for parades.  The next time your home-town has a 
parade, why not sign up and tow your sub down main street (George 
Kittredge did it in 2008 at the Maine Lobster Festival).

For those of you who own submarines, or will have a sub soon, please 
consider this plea for public outreach.  In the past I have merely made 
an announcement when some group or entity was requesting a service and 
waited for one or more of you to respond, however I'm hoping we can 
become more proactive starting this year.  We have a "Public Display" 
web page on our web site to advertise these kind of things and I would 
like to invite you to be on it.  I'm asking you to look at 
http://www.psubs.org/pubdisp and consider listing your availability in 
whatever capacity you are comfortable with, and I promise that we will 
help you with any coordination or support.

For those of you without submarines, you are still able to contribute by 
perhaps giving a talk in your local community or visiting a local 
school.  You could for example use the DVD "Wally's First Dive" as a 
multi-media tool and then provide more detail about how submarines 
operate and what they can be used for.

If you can help out with this "outreach" project, please contact me 
off-list.

Thank you!
Jon




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