A new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has completed its first field test in ultra-deep waters near the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, collecting data on previously unexplored polymetallic nodules.
Deep sea environments remain largely unexplored. The extreme depths, cold temperatures, high pressure and distance from shore all present major challenges to exploration.
US-based start-up Orpheus Ocean, a spin‑off from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has developed a small AUV able to withstand these hostile conditions, exploring depths and gathering data autonomously at up to 11,000 metres below sea level.
In a project led by the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI), based at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, Orpheus Ocean’s UAV is being deployed in a deep sea deployment mission.
With support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the US Geological Survey, the mission...