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Deep sea discoveries
NOAA to explore ocean floor with high-tech vessel
Jan 3, 2008
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by Nancy Caronia
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Until 1977, It was believed that only photosynthetic beings lived on the planet. That was the year chemosynthetic creatures were discovered near the Galapagos Islands deep below the ocean's surface. With no marine biologist onboard the research vessel and video communication practically non-existent, no one knew what they were observing. The scientific team collected specimens and, upon their return, marine biologists took a look. It was months before the life-changing discovery was understood.
Thirty years later, the ocean floor continues to remain a mystery -- only five percent of it has been mapped and explored. Toward that end, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the largest U.S. government agency within the Department of Commerce, has entered a new paradigm of discovery with its most recent vessel, the Okeanos Explorer.
Scientists Via Satellite
The majority of scientific missions test and prove theories, but NOAA's latest acquisition is being built as a one-of-a-kind flagship outfitted with the latest technology in order to conduct reconnaissance that will generate and develop hypothesis. The revolutionary advances in video and satellite technology will also allow for a leaner onboard scientific crew supported by scientists and researchers onshore, according to Fred Gorell, public affairs officer, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.
NOAA received the 224-foot long, 43-foot wide vessel, a value of almost $12 million, from the Navy when the ship was decommissioned. Another $15 million has been spent to refit the ship and create its dual-body remote operated vehicle.
The vessel has a berthing capacity of 43, but the science crew will comprise less than half that number. Cross-trained scientists and researchers, as well as advanced broadband HD and satellite transmission, have allowed for an integrated real-time interactive science community to coexist.
Most ocean scientists spend up to 180 days at sea, but the Okeanos Explorer will create more shore time and an increased quality of life for scientists and researchers. It will also enable onboard scientific crews to send real-time video transmission to a myriad number of "on-call" onshore scientific experts. This means no waiting for months to discover what was found on the ocean's surface.
Additionally, an Inner Space Center, being developed by the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, will serve as the hub of the command and control center receiving the satellite uplink from the Okeanos Explorer. It will distribute the multicast video feeds via Internet2 to other "spokes" on the wheel, such as the Institute for Exploration, founded by Dr. Robert Ballard and located at the Mystic Aquarium. Other receive sites include the University of New Hampshire's Joint Hydrographic Center, and NOAA's Seattle-based Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Silver Spring, MD, facilities.
Scientists can be called upon at any time to check out an organism or geographic anomaly. With a bit rate of 20 Mbps, there is a negligible 3/4-second delay in the video streaming. Although they will not be able to interact with the crew, students and the general public will also be able to witness ongoing research projects through the complex satellite infrastructure and broadband Internet.
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| A 224-foot vessel, the Okeanos Explorer, will augment a smaller crew with scientists on land by using satellite technology for real-time interaction. |
Work In Progress
A project of the GSO and the state of Rhode Island, the ISC was approved through a $12 million bond referendum. An initial $1 million built a prototype center at Mystic Aquarium's IE; that equipment will be transferred to the new center. Currently, URI is in the middle of a multi-million dollar campaign to purchase new Internet technology and broadcasting and videoconferencing equipment, according to ISC director Dwight Coleman.
Currently, the prototype center doesn't have the encoders necessary to stream in HD, but Coleman said they are waiting for prices to drop. "We estimate that we need about another $1.5 million to equip the ISC with updated technology," he explained. "The technology will cost about $2.5 million and the facility itself is about $5 million out of that $12 million referendum."
While GSO is in charge of the ISC, NOAA is making sure that a complex array of HD and SD cameras from Sony and Ikegami are outfitted on the front and back of the Okeanos Explorer, as well as on the dual-body ROV. There is also a Canon camcorder to allow access anywhere onboard.
"We also have IP audio communication between ship and shore and shore and shore, and within the vessel we have an intercom that allows crew members to speak as though they were in the same room," added Craig W. Russell, MMA, senior planner, consultant to NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, Earth Resources Technology. "We don't have a face-to-face video interaction from shore-to-shore, and we're trying to develop that videoconferencing now."
Perhaps the most sophisticated equipment being developed is for the dual-body ROV suite, which in addition to collecting specimens will help map the seafloor through the Okeanos Explorer's ability to use multi-beam sonar sweeps.
Maryland-based Phoenix International won the contract for the development of the ROV almost three years ago. Russell said both the ROV and Okeanos Explorer are ready for the shakedown phase of the project, where protocols will be trained, tested, developed, and revised before the vessel's maiden voyage sometime next year.
"There are two sides to the shakedown," he explained. "There is the ship's perspective as far as safe operations, and then there is the science mission. That has an entirely different shakedown where we have to test all the mission systems, the ROV, the high resolution mapping system... It will be an extensive shakedown period."
ROV Assembly
The dual-body ROV has three components. The main body has two manipulator arms, thruster engines for propulsion, and an area for incorporating interchangeable work-skids to carry payloads. A camera sled, without thrusters, is attached to the main body of the ROV through a flexible, 15-meter electro-fiber optic tether, while the camera sled is attached to the Okeanos Explorer with an 8,000-meter armored electro-fiber optic cable. The large cable couples the vessel's motion with the camera sled and ROV -- and both components have lights to illuminate the seafloor environment.
Both the sled and ROV can operate independently of each other and are outfitted with Ikegami HD cameras with Fujinon lenses. The ship's pilot and co-pilot control the cameras through remote PTZ units, while the data is multiplexed onto one fiber at different wavelengths.
In addition, there are three NTSC cameras on the sled and eight on the ROV. These cameras are used for a variety of utility purposes, including allowing the sled's cameras to be trained on the ROV or the cables so that the pilot and co-pilot can check on the gear's status.
"The sled's lights add to those of the main ROV in illuminating the seafloor, and the sled's camera will provide video images that put in perspective the main ROV and the targets it investigates," said Brent Evers, senior electrical engineer/manager, PI. "As a pilot, you are driving a vehicle in a different environment from what you are used to. If you can look at what is going on, you have a stable frame of reference. The pilot camera can keep a look at what is of interest to him, and that is independent of the Ikegami camera, which can be framed by the scientist although the pilot is in control of it.
"There are different users here. The scientists want to see one thing, but the pilot is the captain and is trying to make sure he doesn't lose the vehicle."
While the scientist will direct the pilot or co-pilot to focus on something, they will not be able to directly control any of the cameras. "It is impossible to have that many people with their hands on the controls. While the scientist is going to be glued to the HD cameras, the sled camera will become an important part of the picture, because pictures of the ROV will be gotten through that," added Evers.
A control panel for the chief scientist will allow him to easily pick camera shots to display on two 46-inch LCD monitors. In addition, the pilot has two 15-inch monitors and the co-pilot, navigation, dry lab, and video engineer all have eight-inch monitors.
The xBot, the third vehicle on the ROV that is housed within the ROV, has its own lighting system and carries two NTSC cameras that are also multiplexed back to the ship. This micro-ROV will allow NOAA to probe confined areas or high-risk environments. When small HD cameras are available to operate at depth, the xBot will be outfitted with them.
"xBot is a penetration vehicle and when we want to explore tight spots, we can send it out," noted Gorell. "It has a small fiber optic connection between itself and the ROV, and provides us with another capability."
In order to withstand the high pressure undersea environment, two separate casings have been made by PI. Through pressure tolerant electronics, syntactic foam makes the ROV body neutrally buoyant, keeps it from being compromised by the water pressure, and helps to correct optic aberrations. Evers said the camera equipment is housed in a one-foot wide cylindrical titanium tube with caps on the end that are designed to withstand 10,000 psi and have cable connectors.
Once the data from the ROV cameras is de-multiplexed, the video feeds can be sent independently through a Miranda router to as many different destinations as needed. "From a recording perspective, any signal can be routed to any destination through the EVS digital servers. Everything goes straight to the servers, which can hold up to 300 hours of HD or 25 TBs," said Evers. "From there, data can be sent to the Tandberg video encoders, where it can be sent via satellite to the shore where anyone with access will be able to watch the live feed."
The vessel has a lightweight production studio onboard that is "heavy on storage and routing capability and light on production capability," Evers added. "If they want do a bit of editing, they can use Final Cut Pro."
Once the Okeanos Explorer has completed its shakedown period, its missions are expected to focus in the Pacific Ocean basin as well as between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. "This is a national ship, a national icon for the agency and for the U.S," Gorell said. Whatever discoveries the Okeanos Explorer makes will be national assets."
MORE INFO
Apple apple.com
Canon usa.canon.com
Earth Resources Technology ertcorp.com
EVS evs.tv
Fujinon fujinon.com
Ikegami ikegami.com
Miranda miranda.com
Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration mysticaquarium.com
NOAA noaa.gov
Phoenix International phnx-international.com
Sony sony.com/government
Tandberg tandberg.com
University of Rhode Island gso.uri.edu
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