Nereus can switch between free-swimming and tethered configurations
The sub sampled sediment from the Marianas Trench
Nereus aims to give researchers access to 100% of the seafloor
Posted on 06/17/2009 9:01:50 AM PDT by neverdem
A robotic sub called Nereus has reached the deepest-known part of the ocean.
The dive to 10,902m (6.8 miles) took place on 31 May, at the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean.
This makes Nereus the deepest-diving vehicle currently in service and the first vehicle to explore the Marianas Trench since 1998.
The unmanned vehicle is remotely operated by pilots aboard a surface ship via a lightweight tether.
Its thin, fibre-optic tether to the research vessel Kilo Moana allows the submersible to make deep dives and be highly manoeuvrable.
THE NEREUS SUBMERSIBLE
Weight on land: 2,800kg Payload capacity: 25kg Maximum speed: 3 knots Batteries: rechargeable lithium ion
Nereus can also be switched into a free-swimming, autonomous vehicle.
"With a robot like Nereus, we can now explore virtually anywhere in the ocean," said Andy Bowen, project manager and principal developer of the sub at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
"The trenches are virtually unexplored, and I am absolutely certain Nereus will enable new discoveries. I believe it marks the start of a new era in ocean exploration."
The Challenger Deep is the deepest-known part of the ocean, and part of the Marianas Trench near the island of Guam in the west Pacific.
It is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times those at the surface.
As a result, only two vehicles have ever made the trip to its crushing depths.
In January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh made the first and only manned voyage in a Swiss-built bathyscaphe known as the Trieste.
The vessel consisted of a 2m-diameter (6ft) steel sphere containing the crew suspended below a huge 15m-long (50ft) tank of petrol, designed to...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
2000 more meters down than Everest is high.
Amazing.
So it ought to be looking for the black boxes from the Air FRance flight.
It could be used to recover FLT 447’s black box, couldn’t it?
Darn you. *sigh* That’s what happens when you get a phone call in mid-post...
Was that really necessary?
I should be ashamed of myself
Right in the middle of my lunch.That’s just discourteous.
WTF was that for?
Just last night there was a program on TV about a group of researchers that sent a manned sub to the bottom of the trench back in the 60s. Very interesting.
Great. All the Tweakers will try to steal it to cook Meth.
Did they find Hoffa’s body.
I believe that’s where it’s from....
Oh, man. Too many possibilities about challenges and going deep.
Probably...
“Did they find Hoffa’s body”
No, Obama’s birth certificate.
Bingo!
Paging Admiral Nelson, paging Admiral Harriman Nelson...
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