Testing of ENDURANCE Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
A group from University of Illinois - Chicago, Montana State University, NASA's Ames Research Center, and Bill Stone's Stone Aerospace, have been building an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), to explore under-ice lakes in Antarctica. The eventual goal is to develop a vehicle to explore oceans underneath the crust of Europa (yes, Jupiter's moon), in or around 2017.
The vehicle is called ENDURANCE ("Environmentally Non-Distributing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer) and is based off the DEPTHX vehicle which was tested in Zacaton last year. The vehicle was brought to Madison, Wisconsin this week to do initial cold-water under-ice testing. Our local shop was hired by a group producing a documentary on the project to support their ice-diving for underwater filming.
Here's some photos from the first two days:
ENDURANCE being lifted from the parking lot and down to the water:
http://lh5.google.com/ethan.brodsky/...0/IMG_7301.jpg
They had a 90 ton crane to lift it, but the vehicle was heavy enough that they couldn't extend the boom very far out, so the hole had to be fairly close to shore. We're barely at the minimum depth range for the vehicle - maximum depth is 1000 meters.
Bill Stone preparing to connect the fiber optic cable for communication to the control room:
http://lh6.google.com/ethan.brodsky/.../IMG_7307.jpg"
Once the vehicle checks out, it will go into an entirely autonomous operation mode and will do eight-hour survey dives without operator intervention before return to base.
The underwater cinematographer prepares to get in the water to film the vehicle's first dive:
http://lh3.google.com/ethan.brodsky/.../IMG_7310.jpg"
Close up of the vehicle:
http://lh5.google.com/ethan.brodsky/.../IMG_7329.jpg"
Later in the week, it is planned for the vehicle to do some fully autonomous dives where it leaves the hole, travels around under the ice on its own, and then returns to the hole.
The vehicle is scheduled in November to explore Lake Bonney, a 130 foot deep lake in Antarctica under 12-15 feet of ice. Because the lake has been isolated from the surface for so long, it is hypothesized that interesting forms of life might be found there. The isolation has also lead to very stable water conditions, allowing severe stratification in temperature and salinity, so the micro-climates may vary significantly within the lake. The next goal is to explore Lake Vostok, a 4000 foot deep geothermally-heated lake under more than a mile of ice.
I have a photo gallery with more images here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ethan.br...ndotaENDURANCE
More about the project:
http://www.stoneaerospace.com/produc...-ENDURANCE.php
http://www.evl.uic.edu/endurance/wisconsin.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0211142020.htm
