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493 Document de cartographie et de planification et orientation

Direct from Dik Barton.

These maps were crucial to predict planning on board and then in the submersible, during the dives to the wreck to identify artefacts.

Anyone who was serious and not just a passenger or just ‘ballast’ on a dive, kept their own records and had their own system but it was insisted, everyone logged every single recovered artefact, time, location, fix and description.

That way RMST built up the mapping and location of artefacts by type and wreck orientation.

Inside the Mir submersibles at 7.8 m long, 3.6 m wide, 3.0 m high, and weighing 18,600 kg, the personnel sphere's walls are 5 cm thick, and the inside diameter of the working area is 2.1 m. Working and living inside the sphere is uncomfortable and generates many litres of condensation as the sphere walls cool as the submersible descends, and change depth at a maximum vertical speed of 40 meters per minute to the wreck to a depth of about 12,500 feet / 3.8 km. Air pressure inside the cabin remains at a constant one atmosphere as the air is recycled in a manner similar to that used on board spacecraft, with lithium hydroxide scrubbers removing accumulated carbon dioxide.

The maps were used extensively and are marked, the staining is wear and tear. Rebreathed saturated water appears as condensation in the submarine and collects in the sump and against the portholes and interior. The condensation has impurities from going through the scrubbers charcoal filters and gets everywhere. The crew spend long periods against the submersible sphere and the three viewports; a viewport material is 18 cm thick and the forward-facing port is 20 cm diameter, with the two side-facing ports are 12 cm diameter each.

The units' life-support systems have 246 man-hour capacity, or 3.42 days for a three-person crew.Anyone who was serious and not just a passenger or just ‘ballast’ on a dive, kept their own records and had their own system but it was insisted, everyone logged every single recovered artefact, time, location, fix and description.

That way RMST built up the mapping and location of artefacts by type and wreck orientation.

The units are designed for pressure at 6,000 metre depth, and have been tested to 125% of that pressure. In field testing, Mir-1 descended to 6,170 m and Mir-2 descended to 6,120 m.

The notes on these plans were made by Ken Marshall and Bill Sauder.

Ma collection