Image

Working on the Birdcage

Chris Lathan, a former pilot of the human-occupied submersible Alvin, works during ths sub’s upgrade that was completed in 2014, 50 years after the original Alvin was launched. He’s working on the “birdcage,” a mockup of the equivalent scaffold in the real Alvin that supports all the systems that distribute power, data, audio, and video to the interior of Alvin’s personnel sphere. Working on the birdcage, Lathan could design and troubleshoot the systems before they were incorporated into the upgraded sub. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)