9/23/2023 0 Comments Ocean rov![]() ![]() This process and maintenance will continue through the coming weeks. With both ROVs safely onboard, the team aboard Nautilus began the long process of thoroughly checking and documenting the condition of both vehicles and their many components. ROV Jason pilots connected the shackle to the lift straps threaded through the frame of Argus, and Nautilus was able to recover the vehicle by reeling it in with the winch and transferring Argus to the crane via the lift line. The team aboard Nautilus then used the ship’s traction winch to deploy over 2000 meters of cable, typically attached to Argus during normal operations, to the seabed rigged with tracking beacons, a lift line for Argus, and a shackle to connect the lift line to the Argus rigging that the ROV Jason team had put in place during the prior dive. Approximately two and a half hours after being released from the seafloor and 167 hours since being disconnected from the ship, Hercules was craned back aboard Nautilus. At sunrise, the ROV reached the surface where it was hooked into a recovery line using the E/V Nautilus’s small boat. Once released, ROV Hercules ascended at a rate over 30 meters per minute, more than double the normal ascent speed. On the second dive on September 2nd, ROV Jason descended equipped to sever the tether connecting Hercules and Argus using a hydraulic band saw, releasing Hercules to free-float to the surface. Ocean Exploration Trust R/V Thompson in the background as ROV rescue operations continued in the first light of September 2nd, with E/V Nautilus's small boat in the foreground ready to tow ROV Hercules on the surface. After both vehicles were prepared and rigged for recovery by attaching beacons, adjusting flotation, and preparing lift straps, ROV Jason returned to the surface to prepare for a second dive timed to release and recover Hercules at the surface at daybreak. The negatively-buoyant towsled ROV Argus was found partially dug into the rubble of the basaltic terrain of Endeavour still connected to positively-buoyant ROV Hercules floating 60 meters above at the end of the umbilical tether. On the first reconnaissance dive on September 1st, ROV Jason was quickly able to locate the vehicles utilizing the coordinates of their last known location on August 26th and by pinging Hercules’s Sonardyne USBL navigational beacon utilized by both WHOI and OET. These operations occurred in water over 2100 meters deep at Endeavour, approximately 200 km offshore British Columbia, Canada. Thompson, and were able to work with the team aboard Nautilus to safely rescue both vehicles. In two ROV dives over the course of 26 hours, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s (WHOI) ROV Jason team deployed their vehicle from the University of Washington’s R/V Thomas G. One week after remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) Hercules and Argus became detached from the cable that connects them to E/V Nautilus, Ocean Exploration Trust is relieved to announce that as of September 2nd, 2021, both of our beloved vehicles have been recovered from the seafloor and are back onboard Nautilus. ![]()
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