NAICEX
2013: Introducing the Team - Molly Solmonson
Hi friends! My name is Molly Solmonson and I am the team's solo Ocean Engineer. After throwing my cover into the air on May 24th, I'll be headed to Little Creek, VA to serve as a Surface Warfare Officer onboard WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD 41). I could not be more excited! I'm a born and raised Alaskan so I'd like to think I have a leg up on my fellow team members when it comes to preparing for the frigid temperatures awaiting us in Barrow- check back in a few days to see if we've all been completely frozen solid! As an Ocean Engineer, my job is to design a buoy capable of collecting delicate, important meteorological data while remaining tough enough to handle the harsh arctic environment. Ideally, we also want this buoy to be deployable via a Submarine Torpedo Tube (easier said than done). Luckily, I have an awesome team ready and willing to help me out. MIDN 1/C Phil Reynolds and MIDN 2/C Sharon Bong (seeking warmer Spring Break destinations) are priceless members of my design team here at USNA who, with me, are working hard to turn this future buoy design into a reality. We're only seven days away from taking the Last Frontier by storm! Thanks for checking in, and we hope that you continue to do so. Wish us luck!
The Naval Academy Ice Experiment is about to take off in a few short days! We're going to start with a series of posts introducing the team from the Naval Academy that will be heading up to Barrow, Alaska.
I am MIDN 1/C Chuck Newnam. I'm one of two members of the team studying Aerospace Engineering at the Academy and, after I graduate, I'll go down to Pensacola, FL to begin flight training to become a Navy Pilot. Over the past few months I've been working on creating and finalizing the power distribution system for our IceKid2A and IceKid3T projects. Of course, with the trip to Barrow being so close, it's definitely crunch time for getting everything ready to leave. Even with the stress of completing the IceKids weighing down on us, I'm extremely excited about the trip next week. I should be in Barrow by next Friday and am eager to get out on the ice and get to work. I grew up in the Northeast, so I'm used to a little bit of cold, but it's hard to imagine the cold in Barrow. To give you an idea of that cold, the current wind chill up there is 37 degrees below zero. Be sure to keep checking back in on this blog over the next two and a half weeks to get daily updates from the Arctic, full of personal experiences and many pictures.
