Remote sensing, exploration
A lot of work has been done to improve the amount of data returned from submersibles and ROVs to surface or shoreside operators.
Enough bandwidth is now available that some lucky students have been following live, and even controlling, a deep sea exploration, watching hi definition video from an ROV in the Pacific. Exploring a forest of hydrothermal vents known as the Lost City, data is transmitted from an ROV through fiber optic cable, a satellite link and finally through Internet2, an upgraded version of the Internet. Students see images from the ROV with a time delay of 1.5 seconds.
Robert Ballard has proposed an ambitious plan to preserve the Titanic and make it accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Two tethered ROVs, following permanent guide cables, would roam either side of the bow section. Timed lights would illuminate particular features as the ROVs passed and hi definition video would be sent via fiber optics to a surface buoy for beaming to a satellite.
Ballard's Titanic Underwater Museum
On this, the latest seemingly bi-annual exploration of the Titanic, fiber optic cables relay video and other data to the surface. This documentary expedition made use of the Russian Mir submersibles and two or three new small ROVs which were able to penetrate farther into the wreck. Carrying their thin control umbilicals on an internal reel, these self-powered ROVs trailed each other into some never before seen passageways and compartments of the Titanic.
Last Mysteries of the Titanic - Discovery Channel
A Small Orange
Undersea exploration can be dangerous. Use information on this site at your own risk.
