Underwater robot fleet unleashed

[zonkers]

Underwater robot fleet unleashed 9/28

The mysteries of the deep once fired our imagination thanks to science fiction such as Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Then we lost interest and started to explore outer space instead.

Even now, only five per cent of the world's ocean floors are known in any detail – but that is about to change.

A multi-billion-pound fleet of 100 unmanned robot submarines is set to be built and will use sonar to map the entire sea floor within five years.

They could uncover huge underwater volcanoes, mountains and thousands of new species, it is hoped.

'The pace of exploration in the ocean is going a little too slowly,' said Reginald Beach, of the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, which is leading the project.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=20320&in_page_id=2

[zbdent]

1. Aquaman is gonna be

pissed ...

[zonkers]

2. And what about Submariner?....

[zbdent]

6. He's always pissed ...

[donsu]

3. they will discover death and dying

nt

[annabanana]

4. 100 robots?. . . 5 years?

Just how fast do these suckers go?

[BrotherBuzz]

5. If they want fast they need to fly - and with humans

Mad scientist or ocean pioneer? Inventor-engineer Graham Hawkes

SAN JOSE, California (5 Dec 2005) -- Is he a mad scientist or an ocean pioneer uncovering the mysteries of the deep? New Scientist magazine says inventor-engineer Graham Hawkes is on the cutting edge of undersea exploration, and his radical new sub design might supersede all of the world's manned submersibles in a few years. Maybe.

You would never suspect it opening the door to his workshop in a fog-shrouded marina in Point Richmond, Calif. A few engineers tool around with Autodesk 3-D software, surrounded by earlier submersible prototypes that have gone hunting for shipwrecks or ended up in the movies.

But project "pushing deep," as Hawkes' wife has dubbed it, is meant to take Hawkes to the very bottom - seven miles below the ocean surface at the Mariana Trench near Guam. Why?

"Why not?" responds the 57-year-old native Brit. "We know much more about the moon than our own planet."

Only one other manned submersible has made it once, and that was 45 years ago.

Hawkes' plan is radical for another reason: He wants to speed to the bottom using the same principles as an airplane. Most other submersibles use the old-fashioned ballast system: take water in to sink, release it to rise. In fact, his submersibles resemble two-seater gliders with clipped wings more than submarines.

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http://www.cdnn.info/news/industry/i051205.html

When all is said and done, they will probably hire Graham to retrieve the busted robots when they fail.