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New Space Systems Laboratory divers are required to take a two-hour familiarization program prior to beginning dive operations in the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility. It is also required for external divers, but may be waived by the Facility Director, especially in instances where the divers have prior applicable experience and will only be performing one or two dives total. This program is led by the Facility Director, the Diving Operations Manager, or other senior personnel with at least lead diver certification as appointed by the Facility Director. The program is conducted in two segments: a facility operations briefing, conducted on the surface, and an in-water practical skills experience.
Approximately the first hour of the introductory course will be classroom material, to familiarize the new divers with the policies and procedures of the NBRF.
Preparatory Activities - Prior to the start of the class, all new divers must complete the diver record-keeping requirements. This will consist of:
All material will be turned over to the Diving Operations Manager for incorporation into a dedicated file folder for each diver, to be stored in the file cabinet at the deck chief's station. The personnel information form will be printed out, and the hard copy also included in the individual's folder.
Surface Briefing - The classroom session is intended to make sure that each diver has a firm understanding of the basic policies and procedures of diving in the NBRF. The syllabus for this session is as follows:
The in-water section of the introductory familiarization program is intended to provide a basic skills refresher experience for divers who may not be current, and to provide an opportunity for senior NBRF dive personnel to learn about the state of each person's dive skills. The content for this dive consists of:
The program leader will meet with each new diver immediately after the in-water session, reviewing their performance and suggesting areas in which some directed practice might be beneficial. If, in the opinion of the leader, an individual's skills are so deficient as to make them unsafe for diving in the NBRF, (s)he will brief the Facility Director on the particulars of the case, who may then choose to withhold dive status immediately, schedule another familiarization to assess the candidate's skills personally prior to making a decision, refer the evaluation and remediation to a certified dive instructor, or to grant dive status with or without additional remediation.
SSL divers must undergo specialized training on in-water rescue and emergency response in the NBRF. This training is required to qualify for deck chief status. This training will emphasize emergency procedures specific to the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, and will emphasize scenarios which will simulate the stress and decision-making environment of accident response. All SSL divers shall take the rescue class at the first opportunity following the introductory course. Failure to take the rescue class without prior approved absence will result in revocation of diver status.
The Rescue/Deck Chief Training class is taught in two four-hour sessions, by a nationally-certified scuba instructor familiar with NBRF operations, the Facility Director, the Diving Operations Manager, and other invited senior dive personnel of the Space Systems Laboratory. The first hour of the first class is classroom information; the remaining time is in-water training and simulation.
The intent of the in-class instruction is to remind the trainees of the content in the Introductory Class as per Section 4.1.1, and to brief them on the material and format of the training sessions. The classroom syllabus is as follows:
In-water training activities will begin with timed ascents to illustrate proper ascent rates, and supervised rescues of simulated victims to verify proper technique. Following this, the class will begin the simulation of scenarios presenting emergency situations, with trainees taking turns acting as the Deck Chief. Scenarios will progress in difficulty from single-victim rescue, assessment, and simulated emergency response to more complex scenarios incorporating multiple victims, more complex assessment requirements, and more stressful situations. By the end of the training sessions, each trainee will have had repeated experiences as simulated victim, rescuer, and Deck Chief.
The instructor will meet with the NBRF teaching personnel after the final training session, reviewing the performance of each student and suggesting areas in which some directed practice might be beneficial. The instructor and the Facility Director will then reach a conclusion on the outcome for each trainee. The nominal outcome for satisfactory performance will be to place the trainee on active Deck Chief status. Options for this decision may include passing the student with or without focused remediation, having the student take the course over, allowing the student to continue dive status without certification as a deck chief, or removing the person from dive status altogether.
Deck chief/rescue refresher courses are required every three years. The
refresher course will be a single four-hour in-water session, running through
emergency scenarios and rotating students through the roles of rescuer,
rescuee, and Deck Chief, as per Section 4.2.2. Performance will be evaluated
by the instructor and outcome specified as per Section 4.2.3.
After reaching lead diver certification and diving for a minimum of 30 hours in the NBRF, a diver may request certification as a lead diver. In a normally scheduled test operation, the candidate will perform the functions of lead diver under the supervision of the Facility Director or designated alternate, who will be one of the divers in the test. The candidate will be evaluated based on their situational awareness, monitoring of all divers, and general control of dive operations. Following this activity, the Facility Director may either approve Lead Diver status for the candidate, or defer to allow the accumulation of more experience.
Lead diver status requires that the individual maintain currency in NBRF dive operations. In order to maintain lead diver status, an individual must have participated in at least three dives during the previous calendar year. When a person does not maintain currency, lead diver status will be suspended until they complete three dives in a capacity other than lead diver.
As part of the cooperative agreement with NASA funding the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, the NBRF is required to be open to external diving operations, either with NASA or other related organizations. As part of this obligation, divers external to the University of Maryland will need to participate in dive operations at the NBRF. They are required to have the same basic qualifications as those for internal divers, as listed in Section 2.2, and will receive the same facility operations briefing as described above in the Familiarization Program. The Facility Director may choose to waive the requirement for the in-water refresher course for individuals whose dive exposure to the NBRF will be limited in time or total operations.
Other facility-unique diving operations (e.g., space suit operations, safety diver) also require specific qualifications (such as lead diver status) and training, ranging from a simple briefing to dedicated in-water training sessions. These requirements are detailed in Section 6 of this Diving Safety Manual.
Records of the outcomes of training activities will be kept entered into the diver record form in the computer data base. The Diving Operations Manager will be responsible for maintaining up-to-date records, and for advising divers in need of recertification or periodic training.