Celebrate World Oceans Day and join the Inner Space Center as it connects LIVE with three ocean science and exploration vessels: the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, E/V Nautilus, and RV Falkor. Tune in through Facebook Live and/or YouTube on June 8, 2018, at 3:00 pm ET, and hear from scientists, engineers, and other crew as they discuss the important (and exciting!) work they are conducting to understand our changing ocean. Be part of the conversation and explore with us!
Tag Archives: telepresence
Titanic Returns for its 20th Anniversary
In honor of its 20th anniversary, the 1997 film, Titanic, is being brought back to the big screen, for one week only, in select AMC Theatres.
Most of the film is based on real events. In 1985, the eventual founder of URI’s Inner Space Center, Graduate School of Oceanography professor, Dr. Robert Ballard, discovered the wreck in its resting place at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Ocean Exploration, “Olympic-Style”
From August 18, 2017, to September 3, 2017, the E/V Nautilus will be exploring the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (NMS), located along the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. The sanctuary encompasses 3,189 square miles (8,260 km2), an area equivalent to the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It extends 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 km) from the shore, including most of the continental shelf, as well as three important submarine canyons: the Nitinat Canyon, the Quinault Canyon and the Juan de Fuca Canyon. The main objectives of this expedition are to explore and characterize seafloor resources and features associated with these submarine canyons. Quinault and Quileute Canyons have never been explored by remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or autonomous underwater vehicle ( AUV).
Tuning into the Musician Seamounts
During their 2015 Hohonu Moana expedition, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer discovered and mapped an unnamed seamount in the Central Pacific Ocean Basin (shown in the image above). The ship and scientists are now returning to this region, “Musician Seamounts”, to conduct additional mapping and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operations over two consecutive cruises. These efforts will be focused north of the Hawaiian Islands, close to the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).
2016 – A Year in Review
It’s been another eventful year here at the Inner Space Center (ISC)! We outfitted two research vessels and a merchant vessel with telepresence technologies, and supported over 100 days of telepresence on the E/V Nautilus, and on the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. Our services facilitated the investigation the El Faro shipwreck, supported a 5-year study of submerged tribal cultural sites in Rhode Island Sound, and enabled the first ever telepresence broadcast from a manned submarine! During the summer, we hosted the next generation of deep-sea scientists at ISC Mission Control as they participated in a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) dive-planning boot-camp. Meanwhile, the Nautilus and Okeanos Explorer continued their ground-breaking deep sea explorations of offshore California, and the Marianas region.
Continue reading 2016 – A Year in Review
What is an ROV?
If the ocean is so unfathomably wide and deep, how can scientists possibly hope to do any more than dip our noses beneath the waves to explore? Luckily, engineers have adapted machines to reach areas of the ocean that would never be possible with a human alone. This is where remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, become essential tools of discovery.
Introducing the Newest U.S. Academic Research Vessel: R/V Sally Ride
Named in honor of the first woman to travel into space, Dr. Sally K. Ride, the R/V Sally Ride is the newest of the United State’s Academic Research Vessels (UNOLS). Operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in cooperation with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Sally Ride represents the new Ocean Class of research vessels. The 238-foot ship features seafloor mapping systems, doppler radar for mapping deep water currents, 2,035 square feet of lab space, and telepresence technologies. Continue reading Introducing the Newest U.S. Academic Research Vessel: R/V Sally Ride
Live from the Okeanos Explorer – Pearl Harbor Day Event
75 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will be diving live on two Japanese mini submarines. Join us on December 7, 2016 to witness the first ever live broadcast of the exploration of the wreck site.
Visit the National Marine Sanctuaries website for additional images.
Telepresence on the R/V Sally Ride
From November 28 to December 5, 2016, the Inner Space Center (ISC) supported a science verification cruise for the R/V Sally Ride, one of two, new vessels in the U.S. Academic Research Fleet. These short cruises are intended to test the ship, crew, and science systems to make sure that all are in proper working order before the ship departs for its first research expedition. The Sally Ride was named after the late Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, who was part of the space shuttle Challenger crew in 1983.
The ISC team tested the ship’s capabilities to support the Jason remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system as well as ship-to-shore telepresence technologies and protocols that will enable shore-based participation during ROV dives. Director of the ISC, Dr. Dwight Coleman, installed a mobile telepresence unit (MTU) on board. This unit allows for any ship to have telepresence capabilities.
During the cruise, ROV Jason was used for a variety of exploration activities. Geophysicist, Dr. Mark Zumberge, and his group from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, used Jason to attach geophysical sensors to the sea floor. Dr. Lisa Levin, also from Scripps, used the ROV system to continue biological survey of the seafloor around the Del Mar methane seep near San Diego, CA.
Along with ROV operations, the R/V Sally Ride was able to connect to the Birch Aquarium. Amanda Netburn, Bruce Applegate, and Dwight Coleman hosted live broadcasts to the aquarium’s new Sally Ride exhibit.
For more details about the R/V Sally Ride, visit their website.