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Having tested their mettle in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster, automated sea gliders are deployed in polar-opposite conditions to investigate short-lived phytoplankton blooms
February 25, 2011 | 4
Nov. 12, 2010—Vernon Asper, a marine science professor at the University of Southern Mississippi at Stennis Space Center, wrote: "This is the view under the ice!...[More]
Nov. 14—Asper: "On day two of the operation, the weather was brutal with winds usually about 30 knots and gusting over 45 on occasion....[More]
Nov. 14—Asper: "Our whole operation, including the laptop operator, the glider and the shipping cases. Note that we parked the truck a good distance away to avoid any potential magnetic interference from its metal."...[More]
Nov. 21—Asper: "We're finally on our way to the ice for our first Seaglider deployment! This photo is from the helicopter and shows an example of the view as we flew in, looking for a suitable deployment location....[More]
Nov. 21—Asper: "The FSTP (Field Safety Training Program) people handled all of the ice edge work and were 'roped in' at all times. The water in the background looks like it's ice-free but there is a very thin layer of ice there."...[More]
Nov. 21—Asper: "This is the glider in the act of being deployed. As soon as it was in the water, they attached the ROV [remotely operated vehicle] towrope to it....[More]
Nov. 21—Asper: "A close-up of the ROV towing the glider; note the very thin ice and the green towrope. We didn't know if this would work but it worked great, at least under these conditions."...[More]
Nov. 21—iRobot's Seaglider, with Antarctica's Mount Erebus in the distance. The company licensed the Seaglider technology from the University of Washington in 2008 and has since designed them to tackle data-gathering missions lasting several months and covering thousands of kilometers....[More]
Nov. 28—Asper: "Lowering glider 503 [the second iRobot Seaglider] into the water as the penguins ignore us."
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4 Comments
Add Comment"The tetherless Seaglider drives through the water at a maximum speed of 1.8 kilometers per second, driven by changes in buoyancy rather than a propeller system."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisErr, I am pretty sure that the max speed is not 1.8 kilometers per second - perhaps meters per second?
Robots are doing amazing things,and whats to come in the next decade will leave people mind-boggled.From sexual courtesan which will raise all kinds of new questions. Is having sex with a machine illegal?Should it be?,To tiny robots that will repair us from within,raising all new laws of ethics about who should or should not receive them.Should a poor or uneducated person be treated with multi million dollar therapy just to be returned to the ghetto.And all of this being done by wifi,with no large components to operate these and other devices.What wonders will be lets hope they don't bring us to are knees
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe use of i Robot Seaglider is amazing piece of technology that should enhance our understanding of the world that lies under the oceans. We marvel over the developing technology that only increases over the decades, but to raise that there are ethical questions of who should benefit from this technology is anti-poor and racist. "Should a poor uneducated person be treated with multi-million dollar therapy just to be returned to the ghetto?" Should technology be used for the few, the privileged, the educated, the suburban, the affluent? Like the Luddites that came before who feared the change in technology in the beginning of the Industrial Age, we fear the coming of a new age that is just as earth shattering as the age that came before this. Will technology bring us to our knees? Only if we want it to. Knee pads anyone?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom phytoplankton to sex bots? Really? Pervert? Unable to get a real date? You are worse than Stew6302. He is just insane, you are revolting!
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