submersible Archives

Rendered graphic of the MARUM-MeBo70 landing on the seabed of the Amundsen Sea coast of West Antarctica

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Update: Landing A Droid On The Antarctic Seabed – Formation Of Antarctica’s Ice Sheet

by Keith CowingJuly 11, 2024July 7, 2024

In recent years global warming has left its mark on the Antarctic ice sheets. The “eternal” ice in Antarctica is melting faster than previously assumed, particularly in West Antarctica more […]

Trajectories along the Eiffel Tower hydrothermal vent. Camera poses were retrieved using COLMAP (Schonberger ¨ and Frahm 2016). 3D model was meshed and textured using OpenMVS (Cernea 2020). -- cs.CV

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Away Team Deep-Sea Datasets: Long-Term Visual Localization Of The Eiffel Tower Hydrothermal Vent

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2024July 7, 2024

Visual localization plays an important role in the positioning and navigation of robotics systems within previously visited environments.

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Analog Studies, Apps - Games, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Education and Outreach, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ice Planet Update: Digital Twin Of RRS Discovery Shows How Antarctic Research Began

by Keith CowingJuly 8, 2024July 7, 2024

A project led by the University of Southampton has created a ‘digital twin’ of RRS Discovery – the pioneering research vessel that first took explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest […]

Away Teams & Field Reports, Commercial & Private Sector, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Ocean World Droid Power Source You Were Looking For

by Keith CowingJune 18, 2024June 18, 2024

When it comes to mapping new territory, NASA’s record swamps Lewis and Clark’s. And the space agency doesn’t only chart other stars and planets – a vantage point from space […]

This transparent-bodied sea cucumber belongs to the Elpidiidae family and is called 'unicumber'. You can clearly see its intestines and that it has been eating sediment. We can only guess what the long tail is used for, but probably to be able to swim. Photo: SMARTEX/NHM/NOC

Away Teams & Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving

Away Team Report: Unknown Species Discovered On A Deep-sea Expedition To The Clarion Clipperton Zone

by Keith CowingJune 9, 2024June 9, 2024

Transparent sea cucumbers, bowl-shaped sponges, and pink sea pigs are some of the fascinating animals discovered during a deep-sea expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

The Deep Phreatic Thermal eXplorer, or DEPTHX. IMAGE CREDIT: JASON TOWNSEND/STONE AEROSPACE.

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Engineering Astrobiology and Exploration

by Keith CowingJune 1, 2024June 1, 2024

NASA Astrobiology joins in the 2024 Engineers Week (Feb. 18-24) celebration to recognize the contributions of NASA’s engineers, technicians, and technologists to discovery and innovation.

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, known as black smokers, emit volcanically heated fluids rich in dissolved metals and sulfur. These environments are oases of microbial activity on the ocean floor. -- Marum Universitat of Bremen

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Iron-sulfur Minerals Bear Witness To The Earliest Life On Earth

by Keith CowingMay 31, 2024May 31, 2024

A team of researchers at the Universities of Tübingen and Göttingen has found that certain minerals with characteristic shapes could indicate the activity of bacteria in hydrothermal vents – or […]

2016: Alvin working on the East Pacific Rise, as viewed from a camera on an elevator (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Offworld Away Team Analog: New Opportunities and Untapped Scientific Potential in Earth’s Abyssal Ocean

by Keith CowingMay 23, 2024May 23, 2024

The abyssal ocean covers more than half of the Earth’s surface, yet remains understudied and underappreciated. In this Perspectives article, we mark the occasion of the Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin’s […]

Robert Keino (Bosun) assists in recovering the CTD rosette. “CTD” stands for conductivity, temperature, and depth, and refers to a package of electronic devices used to detect how the conductivity and temperature of water changes relative to depth. (Photo by: Alex Ingle, Schmidt Ocean Institute)

Away Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

New Technologies Revise Our Understanding Of Oxygen Minimum Zones

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2024May 22, 2024

A new technology detects trace amounts of oxygen in an environment where previously these life-supporting molecules were below the limit of detection.

Volcanic ash and mollusc shells surround a deep-sea hydrothermal vent at the vent field in the Kingdom of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. URI researchers had a unique opportunity to study the biology of the organisms living at the site of a volcanic eruption in the southern Pacific, able to see how life there is impacted by dramatic environmental change, whether natural (volcanic activity) or human (deep-sea mining).(Roxanne Beinart, chief scientist, URI. Funder: NSF © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Seafloor Life Devastated Near Explosive Volcanic Eruption In Pacific

by Keith CowingMay 20, 2024May 20, 2024

A University of Rhode Island oceanographer leading her first research cruise in the southern Pacific uncovered a surprise when her vessel looked below the waters in the Polynesian nation of […]