NOAA sent a robot equipped with a bright light and a camera which can remotely transmit live images from the ocean floor as deep as 1,300 feet.
Ocean exploration is now getting more attention as people from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Aquarium of the Pacific gear up to host Ocean Exploration 2020: A National Forum. The forum focuses on creating a solid plan to conduct projects that are meant to explore the world’s deepest oceans.
The initial two days of Ocean Exploration 2020, which starts this weekend, will be attended by invited guests made up of prominent ocean exploration stakeholders from the private sector, government agencies, foundations, and academia. The online community will also be encouraged to provide input and to participate virtually in the event.
Participants to the event are encouraged to come up with useful and creative insights on what the nation’s ocean exploration project should cover and the strategies needed to achieve its success. The robot is one of the successful ocean exploration project.
On the last day of Ocean Exploration 2020, the general public is encouraged to attend a day of celebrating ocean exploration at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Visitors will have the unique opportunity to meet ocean explorers coming from both historical and modern times, hear their stories, be awed with live demonstrations of remotely manned vehicles under water, and view real-time video feeds that come from a trio of deep-sea exploration vessels. Several organizations and agencies that are engaged in ocean exploration such as NASA and NOAA will be putting up educational booths to bring more highlights to the event. Children’s activities and even special guest appearances by the Octonauts will also be included.
While 2020 may seem like a long wait, some visitors of the South Carolina Aquarium have been very lucky after getting a chance to interact directly with a crew while they explore the floor of the ocean using a robot as reported by Post and Courier on Friday. The crew, which was aboard NOAA’s research vessel dubbed as Okeanos Explorer, was using a robot which they placed 100 miles off the coastal area of Massachusetts. They were able to successfully send images to the Charleston aquarium which were viewed on large screens by the staff, scientists, and visitors.
Though the ocean floor is said to be 1,300 feet deep which is too deep for human divers, the depth is definitely not an issue with the Okeanos’ robot which had been able to send images up for studying. This is the first time that the Okeanos crew has sent images which had been available for public viewing.
