The NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer, the only federally funded U.S. ship assigned to systematically explore our largely unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge, will start testing a new remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at sea from May 18 to June 6.

Previously, the Okeanos Explorer program used the Ocean Exploration Center’s ROV, Little Hercules, which was on loan to the program for the past few years. Little Hercules is now on display at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography in the Ocean Science and Exploration Center. Little Hercules is a 4,000-meter-depth-rated ROV, with an impressive past. Little Hercules was removed from the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer after three years of service that took the vehicle to Indonesia, the Galapagos Islands, Panama, and the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way this “little robot that could” captured some of the best underwater video of some of the planet’s most spectacular natural landscapes from some of the most remote and hostile places in the world. The new 6,000-meter ROV has more sophisticated capabilities than Little Hercules, and the increased capabilities will enable innovation through research and development of new sensors and systems. The new ROV currently includes hydraulic manipulator arms for deploying oceanographic sensors, an inertial navigation system, a Doppler velocity navigation system, and a system for dynamic lighting control.

Live video of the sea trials will be streamed from:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/media/exstream/exstream_04.html

You can also view the ship track and visualize bathymetric data that the Okeanos Explorer will collect at:

http://www.ncddc.noaa.gov/website/google_maps/OkeanosExplorer/mapsOkeanos.htm

NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), which operates mission equipment, has a formal partnership with the University of Rhode Island (URI) to work from URI’s Inner Space Center (ISC) during telepresence-enabled expeditions from NOAA’s Ship Okeanos Explorer.  NOAA OER has a regional office conveniently located adjacent to the ISC where teams of scientists and students work from Mission Control during telepresence-enabled expeditions from the Okeanos Explorer.  The Okeanos Explorer is homeported in Davisville, Rhode Island and will be working in the Atlantic Ocean this field season.  Join expeditions LIVE 24/7 at http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/

Photo: (Left) Little Hercules and (Right) New ROV

Courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program