FEMALE ANNOUNCER: This program is made by MPT to enrich the diverse communities throughout our state and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

Thank you.

NARRATOR: Coming up... RACE CALLER: Go, go!

NARRATOR: A race beneath the surface... And... This is 25,000 light years away.

NARRATOR: Exploring the cosmos.

Next.

Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

(intro music) ♪ ♪ (bird calls) (underwater sounds) RACE CALLER: Go, go, go!

STUDENT 1: When I told my mom what I was doing, she was so confused.

STUDENT 2: So, you build a canoe?

And I go, no, no, no, it's like under the water, and they go, so you build a canoe that sank?

and I went no, no, no, no, it's supposed to be underwater.

STUDENT 1: So, you build a submarine?

And I went, yeah, but it's not pressurized and there's a person inside.

STUDENT 3: Oh, my goodness, how do they breathe?

STUDENT 4: It's a lot of, that's crazy!

Because people can't really comprehend a human powered submarine as just like a school project.

(music change) MARCH: What we're doing here is we're attaching the control surfaces into the back end here.

And this is how we'll control these rudders here.

You need to have a lot of control over it because even just a few degrees in the water and suddenly you're going way right or left or way up or way down.

NARRATOR: It's the tail end of the school year.

The season of prom, finals, graduation, but at the Frederick County Career and Technology Center, these students - part of a two year high school engineering program, are still in the thick of it... VARSHITH: So, this is our physical model of our sub right now.

NARRATOR: Adapted from the design used by a previous class two years ago.

VARSHITH: We can try out different systems like, drive chain and other stuff to see if it works here, and then we implement it physically.

NARRATOR: In just six weeks, they'll be racing against teams from around the world.

Junior Caleb is the team lead for the project.

CALEB: Last year, we started some basic stuff with this, like, hey - this is what we need to fix.

A lot of it was, like, taking apart the stuff that didn't work, and in January is when we really started to like, start implementing these ideas.

NARRATOR: Outside, Alejandro and Matthew work on a mold for the windshield.

MATTHEW: We just decided to separate the work into proper workloads for everybody, so like, March and Jacob have the drive chain, while I and Alejandro were put on the windshield.

ED LEIBOLT: They are, if I was guessing I'd say two thirds of the way there.

NARRATOR: Navy engineer Ed Leibolt serves as a mentor for the students.

Together, he and engineering instructor, Phil Arnold... PHIL ARNOLD: Good...good...good!

NARRATOR: Have guided two prior Frederick teams through this process.

But it hasn't always been smooth subbing... ED: Last race, for a lot of reasons, we never made it down the course.

So, I made it a goal that we get down the course, no matter what.

NARRATOR: Ed has been part of the International Human Powered Submarine Races since its inception, in 1989... ED: At that time, I was, I think I was 28 years old, and I said, man this would be cool.

So, I formed a team.

The first three races they were in the ocean off the coast of Florida.

And then, in '95 they brought the race to Carderock.

NARRATOR: The Carderock Naval Research Warfare Center in Potomac, Maryland - its home ever since.

(music) ♪ ♪ NARRATOR: One week out from the competition, the school year is officially over - and what better way to mark the start of summer than a trip to the pool?

MATTHEW: Right now, it's the best it's been looking.

And, yeah, we're all just really excited to get it in and see if it's race ready.

ED: First thing we're gonna do today is, we're going to put the boat in the water and we're gonna try to ballast it.

Caleb: So today, I'll be getting in the sub in the water for the first time.

Get my feet clipped in, and pedal.

Definitely, nervous about it, I've never done anything like this before.

NARRATOR: Lead weights help bring the vessel, dubbed Leviathan 1, to neutral buoyancy-- neither sinking, nor floating.

ED: We had to add a lot of lead to it, but that makes it incredibly stable.

NARRATOR: Then, a test of nerves... ED: You gotta have a little bit of courage to get in the boat.

NARRATOR: As the designated pilots, a newly scuba certified Caleb and teammate Jaxton, take turns squeezing in... ED: I mean, you're getting in an enclosed environment underwater.

CALEB: It's really tight, really tight.

NARRATOR: Clipping in... ED: They're a cleated shoe, you have to paint them orange.

NARRATOR: And drawing their first breaths from the sub's small internal air tank.

ED: Once, they get in the boat, then they have to operate too.

CALEB: My knees scrape the bottom every time I pedal.

Really scary but really cool.

I think we'll be ready to race, yeah, I hope so.

NARRATOR: Relying on pure human power, they join a lineage that stretches back more than 400 years, to the world's first navigable submarine... Built in 1620 by Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel, this early submersible was oar-driven, a proof of concept, tested in the Thames.

More than a century later, during the Revolutionary War came the Turtle: a one-man hand-cranked combat machine, designed to fasten explosive charges to the hulls of British Naval Ships - an audacious plan it never quite accomplished.

The outbreak of the Civil War drove further innovation - with both sides developing subs of their own: the Union's Alligator and the Confederacy's Hunley - the latter, the first vessel of its kind to successfully sink an enemy ship.

(music change) GDANSK TECH TEAM MEMBER: This is the Nautilus three and a half from Gdansk Tech in Gdansk Poland.

We're still in the assembly process.

UC SAN DIEGO TEAM MEMBER: This is our submarine Calypso Mod 1, from UC San Diego.

NARRATOR: In the parking lot, a patchwork of pop-up tents, and an atmosphere equal parts science fair project and pit crew scramble - with teams from around the world making their final adjustments.

SINGAPORE TEAM MEMBER: We're from Singapore and our sub name is Mako 2.

So, you can see from the design it resembles the shark.

OREGON STATE TEAM MEMBER: This is our submarine, we named it Castorea which is Latin for beaver and we're the Oregon State Beavers.

CALEB: So...so far today, we got here this morning, got the sub ready for dry inspection... INSPECTOR: and then here, and here... CALEB: They're making sure we have all the components we need to.

INSPECTOR: Excellent.

CALEB: It passed first try which is the first time our school's ever done that.

NARRATOR: Right next door, the reigning champions... OMER, from Montreal.

OMER TEAM CAPTAIN: This is the first submarine in the world to have a hull that is entirely 3D printed.

You can steer the submarine a bit like, if you would be playing Pacman.

The next big step is to put the submarine in the water.

NARRATOR: Inside the David Taylor Model Basin, a Naval testing facility turned race course... Leviathan 1 takes on its second hurdle.

RYAN HUNTER: So, what we're doing here is we're performing the final safety check on the vehicle itself... NARRATOR: Ryan Hunter is one of the competition's wet judges - as is the team's own mentor, Ed.

RYAN: Part of this judging is about technical stuff; do you have strobes?

Do you have the buoy working?

But the other part of it is also just how are you bringing your diver down?

Are you paying attention to the pilot on the inside?

Really what this is about is about safety.

Right now, we are waiting to see the emergency buoy pop up... (tense music) RYAN: Frederick passed successfully all parts of the wet check.

As of right now, five of the 17 teams have passed their wet checks.

NARRATOR: Let the races begin.

Once qualified, each team has until Friday midday to run the course - as many times as they can - chasing their best speed.

Leviathan's first chance comes Tuesday morning.

CALEB: We're about to get in for our first race.

Jaxton will be our pilot.

JAXTON: Feeling nervous as always.

First test we did, I accidentally pedaled backwards, so I'm going to try not to do that this time.

NARRATOR: The course occupies just 100 meters of the half mile long basin - used by the Navy to test ship and submarine hull designs using scale models.

Now, Frederick prepares to put their own creation to the test.

PHIL: This team is in great shape, and they have had a really strong start to the week.

JAXTON: The crew, first get the sub all the way down to 20 feet, then, grab me.

I get moved down into the sub.

They then close the door.

(heart beat) RACE CALLER: Locked and loaded for their first run of ISR 18, we have the great white whale, Leviathan...LEVIATHAN, LEVIATHAN, LEVIATHAN, GO, GO, GO!

And they are slowly warming up their legs... JAXTON: I started pedaling... RACE CALLER: They're taking the scenic route going to the left.

JAXTON: So, I turned the stick to the right but it didn't seem to help at all... RACE CALLER: And Leviathan is trying to find the left wall.

Recover your sub, recover your sub, recover your sub.

JAXTON: I wouldn't call it much of a race.

PHIL: They did not cross the start line.

NARRATOR: And, a second attempt yields similar results.

RACE CALLER: Again, floating up and to the left... BEEP, BEEP, BEEP... PHIL: So, we have a little bit of work to do... NARRATOR: But whatever the issue, it's part of the process.

RACE CALLER: Stop, stop, stop, wait for Navy, wait for Navy, wait for Navy.

BRITISH TEAM MEMBER: We breached the surface on that run.

SINGAPORE TEAM MEMBER: I crashed... BRITISH TEAM MEMBER: Yeah, a few adjustments but hopefully, we can make another run today and do a bit better.

SINGAPORE TEAM MEMBER: Aim to do better, yeah.

PHIL: Failure is a part of engineering.

It's not something that should be feared or avoided.

You learn from things that break or things that don't work the way you intended.

ED: (Laughs) We thought something was broken, the steering and all this.

I came out and looked at it and said, Oh no, we're backwards.

CALEB: Left turn right and right turns left, so I'm just flipping it.

But good news is it does turn.

NARRATOR: Steering swapped, and a bit of fine tuning from the pit crew, and it's back to the basin.

Inside, spectators follow the action via live feeds from underwater cameras... SUB RACES STAFF MEMBER: This is the succession of all the cameras that we have set up from the divers to the starting lines, all the timing gates.

NARRATOR: Fixed cameras enable the timing team to calculate each vessel's speed.

SUB RACES STAFF MEMBER: This next boat is OMER... RACE CALLER: We have OMER locking and loading.

SUB RACES STAFF MEMBER: They're the fastest boat so far on the racecourse... NARRATOR: The race timers calculate two speeds per run... RACE CALLER: GO, GO, GO.

NARRATOR: A full course speed... RACE CALLER: OMER is on the racecourse running straight down that center line.

NARRATOR: ...and speed through a 10 meter timing gate.

RACE CALLER: OMER is in the timing trap, and OMER is out of the timing trap!

SUB RACES STAFF MEMBER: The cameras they're looking at is just a static view of just the timing cameras, the start, gate one, gate two, and the finish line.

And they're getting a timestamp on the paper that they're writing down and then the computer calculates how fast they move.

RACE CALLER: OMER has crossed the finish line!

NARRATOR: Hugo Breton is the pilot for OMER.

HUGO: We did some few small modifications.

My last run I went, I think point one knots faster than yesterday.

That's pretty much our goal, beat ourselves every time.

(laughs) NARRATOR: As for Leviathan... RACE CALLER: Navy, I have Leviathan for you, they have not yet made it on the course.

GO, GO, GO!

NARRATOR: It's Caleb's turn to take the helm... CALEB: It's pretty scary down in there.

RACE CALLER: And Leviathan is on the racecourse for their first time of the races!

CALEB: It was going well.

I felt like I had control... (snap) CALEB: But then, the handle broke off underwater... That's when I started, like, riding along the bottom.

RACE CALLER: Oh, did they forget something?

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP... CALEB: So, we'll get that fixed, and then get back in the water and race.

(sigh) NARRATOR: Easier said than done... CALEB: So right now, we're replacing the plastic handle that snapped off with a metal one, so it won't break off again during a race.

NARRATOR: But for this fix, their race kit falls short... PHIL: So, we went to the team from Canada, OMER, who has basically a machine shop here.

VARSHITH: A bench vise?

OMER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, come in!

PHIL: Everyone knows how hard every team has had to work to get here, and that has built camaraderie, so that when every team arrives here, the objective is to help each other cross the finish line.

NARRATOR: It's Thursday morning - the window to race is closing, and Leviathan is back in the queue.

RACE CALLER: Locked and loaded on the racecourse, from Frederick County, Maryland, we have Leviathan 1!

GO, GO, GO!

And, Leviathan's propellers are turning.

CALEB: I was able to get good control, uh, I was a little low.

RACE CALLER: Leviathan moving steadily down the course, a little low and left of center still.

And Leviathan is through the first timing gate, this is a first, I believe for this submarine.

CALEB: Then I know, ok, I'm about halfway... RACE CALLER: And they were out of the timing gate, they seem to be picking up speed.

Oh, pointed their nose back towards the ground, they might scrape the bottom on this one.

Oh no, he recovered!

NAVY: Abort, Abort!

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP... RACE CALLER: No, he recovered!

Stop, stop, stop, wait for navy, wait for navy, wait for navy.

CALEB: They stopped me just short of the finish line, but we were close.

NARRATOR: It could be a disappointment... PHIL: Well done.

NARRATOR: but it isn't.

CALEB: Feeling really good, really good, we're going to get across the finish line a lot today.

PHIL: These are High School students.

The school year is over.

RACE CALLER: Are you all ready for Leviathan?

PHIL: It didn't slow them down at all.

RACE CALLER: Go, go, go!

PHIL: Making things work... RACE CALLER: Just small movements from Leviathan, as they find their groove.

PHIL: ...building a cohesive team... RACE CALLER: They have their final 10 meters ahead of them!

PHIL: ...supporting each other... RACE CALLER: And, Leviathan has successfully completed the course for the first time this race!

(cheers from the crowd) PHIL: So...I'm proud.

MARCH: Ecstatic!

I mean, this was like, a year's worth of work you know, all but up into this.

JAXTON: Amazing!

It's an amazing feeling.

NARRATOR: With both Jaxton and Caleb completing runs... CALEB: I definitely have more in the tank, I could go faster.

PHIL: Good!

NARRATOR: Leviathan finishes the races in 7th place worldwide out of 17 subs.

The Canadians also finish strong, with a new world record set.

Whatever form it takes, each victory here, measured just as much in teamwork, as in times.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: The wonders of the cosmos extend far off into outer space.

And yet...under the right conditions, they can often seem almost within reach.

So as the dome door slides open on this small observatory in Howard County's Alpha Ridge Park, people gather and prepare for a special evening affair called a Star Party... VICTOR SANCHEZ: The star party is an event where our club members will bring their telescopes to share views of the night sky with members of the general public.

HAL MEMBER: You can definitely look in here, if you want, it's the moon.

NARRATOR: Victor Sanchez is the President of the non-profit, Howard Astronomical League... Also known as HAL... A collection of like-minded individuals eager to expand their earth bound horizons.

VICTOR: HAL members are generally science minded enthusiasts who have an interest in all thing's astronomy.

HAL MEMBER: This is 25 thousand light years away.

NARRATOR: The club's powerful six-inch refractor telescope gives a curious crowd access to deep space imagery... ...but the real action tonight, is outside.

Where HAL members share their knowledge with an excited audience, young and old... HAL MEMBER: Vega is the bright star.

KID: Oh, over there?

Oh, that one right there?

NARRATOR: Giving them their own private window to the heavens.

HAL MEMBER: What we are pointing out is a Ring Nebula, which is a remnant of a supernova, exploded 7000 years ago.

VICTOR: A lot of times, you'll see parents with young kids who want to encourage their kids to get interested in science.

But in addition to that, you just see general people that are just genuinely curious to see what's out there.

Participant: "Wow."

HAL MEMBER: The sound a person makes the first time they see something in a in a telescope and they go, (gasp), that's that just that lights me up.

PARTICIPANT: Oh, my God that is so bright - that is awesome, thank you.

NARRATOR: In order for that awe to shine... the skies need to be clear, cloudless, and dark... Relatively free of light pollution... the atmospheric scattering of artificial white lights which brighten modern cities... "The Bortle Scale" measures the darkness of the sky - nine being the typical big city and one representing the darkest sky.

VICTOR: We're a suburban area, which is a Bortle five area.

The light pollution here comes from mostly just people's houses and businesses.

NARRATOR: Red light allows people to see what they are doing without interfering with the night's activities.

Meanwhile, domes of white light cloud the horizon over Columbia and Baltimore not far off in the distance... VICTOR: Light pollution will drown out the faint objects that we like to look at.

NARRATOR: Which is why Baltimore residents like Jeffrey Lloyd make every effort to attend.

JEFFREY LLOYD: I can easily see all of the major stars of the, Big Dipper.

If I was in Baltimore, I could see them, but they would be dimmer.

NARRATOR: Even as the night's activities wind down, for some, conditions remain too good to leave.

HAL MEMBER: Having a night like tonight is, perfect.

So, I'll probably stay till 2 or 3 a.m.

NARRATOR: Perhaps a shooting star will pass overhead... As is frequently captured by remote cameras out on Maryland's Eastern Shore... meteors running across the sky, over the marshes of Black Water National Wildlife Refuge.

It's an added perk of these five live streaming cameras, installed primarily to capture the refuge's abundant wildlife in action.

Harry Heckathorn helped design the camera system for the non-profit Friends of Blackwater... A retired NASA Astrophysicist, he also installed this small 12 inch diameter reflecting telescope.

HARRY HECKATHORN: Most amateurs would be very happy with a telescope like this.

we don't have a perfectly dark sky, but I contend it's the darkest sky east of U.S.

95.

NARRATOR: With a live feed from the back lawn of the visitor center... HARRY: so, this is a galactic star cluster... NARRATOR: And assisted by computer tech Bob Quinn, Harry gives monthly lectures he calls "Night Sky Tours."

HARRY: This is interesting because you see a galaxy here... NARRATOR: His goal is simple.

HARRY: ...and you see a galaxy here.

HARRY: To show people what the night sky is and why it's valuable.

Why it should be preserved.

They'll see things that they've never seen before.

HARRY: This is an interesting object, how many exposures you got of it?

NARRATOR: They stack long exposures of distant objects... ...to give their audience a glimpse into deep space.

HARRY: These two galaxies are in collision... NARRATOR: Astronomical science revealed, thanks to Blackwater's dark skies.

HARRY: If you spend all your time in a big city without ever seeing the night sky, it's, it's not good for your, for your soul or your psyche.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Which is why Victor Sanchez drives through Maryland's western mountains to this campsite in Garrett County, Wolf Den Run State Park.

The Howard Astronomical League President prepares for an evening of astrophotography... pairing his digital camera with his telescope and computer.

VICTOR: When the weather's right, the stars align, if you will, with family obligations and work obligations, I like to come out here and just get a little bit of time on my own with the telescope.

NARRATOR: Under the Bortle three skies, it doesn't take long to justify the three-hour drive.

VICTOR: The number of stars that we are seeing here far outnumbers what we could see in the city glow of suburban Maryland.

NARRATOR: Equipped with a GPS and corresponding sky map, Victor's telescope pinpoints his first telegraphic subject tonight.

VICTOR: So, this is NGC 5033.

It's a spiral galaxy far, far away.

VICTOR: What I like to do out here is take long exposures because the objects I'm trying to photograph are very dim.

So, that was 300 seconds.

Even with that much time, you really can't see it.

But once I add up a whole number of these, we should be able to see something very pretty.

NARRATOR: Done back at home, this extra picture processing helped build Victor's rich and vibrant library of astrophotography images... which now includes tonight's targets.

VICTOR: So now, I've slewed the telescope over to the center of the Milky Way to the Lagoon Nebula.

This is a nursery.

It's a birth place for stars.

You can see there's lots of little brand new bright stars.

NARRATOR: Working through the night under this canopy of stars...away from the hustle and bustle of modern life... ...a serene otherworldliness takes hold.

VICTOR: The peace, the quiet, the solitude.

It's very comforting.

NARRATOR: Comforting perhaps, but lying under the universe can be humbling as well.

VICTOR: There's a certain amount of awe that you have looking up at the night sky, realizing you're just a single person on a single planet.

And there's just so much out there.

♪ ♪ NARRATOR: To stream episodes of Outdoors Maryland , visit mpt.org/outdoors and don't forget to follow us on social media.

(owl hoots) Learn more about Maryland's diverse natural resources at dnr.maryland.gov, or download the official mobile app.

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