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 ...
I attended a lecture by Buckminster Fuller many years ago.
at which he held up a 12” world globe and explained to us
that the difference between the Challenger deep and the top of Mt. Everest was equal to the thickness of ink on the globe. Something I’ve never forgotten.
I don't think I can even comprehend that kind of depth.
I would think it would take much longer than that!
Yes, a vivid perspective isn't it? A similar example I recall was a professor that held up a billiard ball, saying that if it were expanded to the size of the earth its surface imperfections would be mountains and canyons many times the size of those of the earth.
Did he find Megatron?
LOL!
Welch!
The rest of the post was Racquel!
I didn't expect a HT pic on this thread.
I remember hearing the same example somewhere.
Lord I am so tired of Helen Thomas pics shoved into threads that are totally unrelated to anything political. In political threads too, but especially in these other threads that you can’t even pretend a connection.
The joke wasn’t that funny to start with, but has since been totally run in the ground.
Next time I'll be sure to check with you first, ok? What else don't you like? It's all about you so I want to make sure your taken care of.
xxoo
>>>Next time I’ll be sure to check with you first, ok?
And I appreciate that. Year after year of obsessively mocking an old woman’s looks, usually in discussions that don’t have a darn thing to do with her, is such classless low-rent behavior that any consideration has to be for the better. Good for you.
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