Life Sciences Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Photometrics Group Testing Batteries for Mt. Everest Expedition (February 1999)

The Photometrics Group of the Biochemistry and Biophysics Section headed by Dr. Thomas Ferrell is testing batteries and physiological monitoring equipment for a second expedition that will climb Mt. Everest and test telemedicine gear. The expedition will depart April 12, 1999, and the telemedicine effort is being carried out on site by Dr. Richard Satava of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Surgery of Yale University. Tests of the equipment are necessary because of difficulties encountered on the 1998 expedition. Equipment for that expedition was not supplied or tested by ORNL and the climbers experienced a variety of problems, including exploding batteries at the higher altitudes. ORNL test results provide the correct battery choices with performance testing having been done for altitudes extending up to three times that of Mt. Everest and at extremely low temperatures. (Contact: T. L. Ferrell, 865-574-6214 or ferrelltl@ornl.gov; Funding Source: WFO)