NOAA'S NEW SHIP TARGETS PATH-FINDING
OCEAN EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH
Jan
18, 2005 � A new NOAA ship will go
boldly on a mission to further explore the world’s oceans. "We
want NOAA's newly converted ship to become the international symbol
vessel for ocean exploration and research," said Stephen Hammond,
acting director of the NOAA Office
of Ocean Exploration. "When it sails to unknown areas of the
ocean, chances are excellent that multidisciplinary, international teams
of scientist-explorers on board, and on shore at satellite-linked Science
Command Centers, will make very fundamental discoveries." (Click
image for larger view of the former Navy ship USNS Capable, which will
become NOAA's only ship dedicated to exploring unknown or little known
ocean areas. Click here for high
resolution version, which is a large file. Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy.)
Hammond
chairs a group on a fast track to plan and develop specifications for
a major conversion of the former Navy ship USNS Capable. Following the
award of a conversion contract and an estimated 12 to 18 months in a
shipyard, the ship will be unique to NOAA and the federal fleet as the
only U.S. government ship dedicated to exploring Earth's oceans. "If
we plan well now, those scientists will be equipped for success,"
said Hammond "It will be a path finding ship for discovery and
for mapping a route to ocean research."
"We
are excited about the possibilities this ship offers," said Rick
Rosen, NOAA assistant administrator of NOAA
Research. "While research largely involves the testing of hypotheses,
scientists on this ship will do that and more—they'll be testing,
but also generating, hypotheses." (Click image for larger
view of the ROV Hercules equipped with high-intensity lights at the
top, a high-definition video camera in the center, and manipulator arms,
including one arm with force feedback, giving an operator the "feel"
of handling delicate specimens miles below the ocean's surface. Click
here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Photo courtesy
of Mystic Aquarium/IFE.)
After conversion,
the 224-foot former Navy ship will be NOAA's only ship with a dedicated
science-class deep-ocean robot, or remotely-operated vehicle. The ship
will carry 10,000 meters of umbilical cable, weighing more than 22,000
pounds. Up to 6,000 meters will be used to lower a tow sled close to
the ocean floor. Another 30 meters of separate cable will connect the
tow sled with a mobile ROV equipped with a robust sampling capability.
The long umbilical from the ship to tow sled will funnel commands to
and collect data and images from the ROV. And, it will provide both
the tow sled and ROV with enough electrical power to operate bright
lights, high-definition video cameras and high-resolution still cameras.
"With
the tow sled and ROV both equipped with lights and cameras, we can illuminate
and image the ocean to an impressive degree," said Hammond. "And
with cameras on the tow sled imaging the ROV, we gain perspective when
both the ROV and what it is investigating on the ocean floor are captured
in the same image." NOAA's ship for ocean exploration will also
be equipped with a hull-mounted, state-of-the-art multibeam mapping
sonar system as well as other sampling and surveying instrument systems,
and the ship will offer scientists an ROV control center, a mapping
lab, a technology center to process scientific data and standard wet
and dry labs. (Click image for larger view of the ROV Hercules
investigating boxes on the stern of RMS Titanic more than two and a
half miles deep during NOAA’s 2004 expedition to the wreck site.
NOAA’s new ship will have a similar ROV operating on a tether
of about 90 feet from an ROV tow sled positioned deep in the ocean.
Click here for high resolution
version, which is a large file. Please credit “IFE/ URI /NOAA.”)
"It's
a considerable challenge to plan for a ship conversion of this scope,"
said John McDonough, co-chair of the Working Requirements Group and
operations officer in the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration. "But
I am confident because of the highly experienced and knowledgeable NOAA
commissioned officers who are at the heart of the conversion planning
group. In addition to having representatives from many different NOAA
program offices, we're fortunate to have the input of experts from other
public and private institutions in areas such as ocean mapping, remotely-operated
vehicles and real-time satellite communications."
Scientists
who miss the ship need not stand on the pier and watch opportunity sail
away. They will be ashore at special Science Command Centers, one of
which will be built out in NOAA's Silver Spring complex. Though far
from a rolling ship, those scientists will be members of the science
team—full participants in the ocean expedition. Through high-speed
Internet 2 connections, scientists will exchange data and see deep-ocean
images and specimens taken by ROVs at the same time as their counterparts
on the ship, or at other Science Command Centers ashore. (Click
image for larger view of Institute for Exploration and NOAA engineers
in the control van on the deck of the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown controling
the movements of the Argus and Hercules ROVs near the wreck of RMS Titanic
on May 31, 2004. NOAA’s new ship will have a built-in ROV command
and control center. Using real-time telecommunications, scientists at
similar Science Command Centers ashore will be part of the mission team
of scientist-explorers. Photo courtesy of National Geographic.)
Because
it's vitally important that the ship maintains position while operating
ROVs, the ship will be equipped with a dynamic positioning system, or
"DP," linking ship instruments measuring wind, speed and currents,
with a Global Positioning System (GPS) reading from satellite. The system
then automatically adjusts the ship's main and thruster engines to keep
the ship in a very tight circle, no more than 10 meters off target.
"You need your ROV to stay on station to do its job, either for
conducting general reconnaissance within a given target area or for
following gridlines for a detailed assessment of habitat or artifacts,"
said McDonough. "That requires precise positioning. You also need
DP to keep from dragging your ROV across an obstruction on the ocean
floor."
A big part
of converting the ship will be mounting a multibeam mapping sonar on
the bottom of the hull. McDonough and others visited the NOAA
ship Hi'ialakai in a Portland shipyard because that ship is the
same T-AGOS class as the former Navy ship Capable, and because Hi'ialakai
is having a similar multibeam mapping system installed. The crew working
on the installation of the system on Hi'ialakai provided valuable information
about the installation process.
Previous
ocean explorations have discovered and filmed a volcano erupting underwater
and have mapped underwater canyons, seamounts and deep-sea corals. Scientists
on ocean explorations have discovered numerous new species, researched
historic shipwrecks and other submerged cultural resources and found
compounds in marine animals that produce medicines from the sea. (Click
image for larger view of ceremony transferring the ship from the Navy
to NOAA. Retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., undersecretary
of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, termed
the new ship, “a great value to the U.S. taxpayer.” [Seated
left to right are Navy Capt. Juan Chavez, commander of Military Sealift
Command—Pacific; James L. Connaughton, White House chair, Council
on Environmental Quality; Capt. John Clary, commanding officer of the
NOAA Marine Operations Center, Pacific; Rear Admiral Samuel De Bow,
Jr., director of NOAA Corps and director NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations;
and Stephen Hammond, acting director of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration.]
Click here for high resolution
version, which is a large file. Please credit "NOAA.")
"The
ocean is so little understood that a good part of the ship's mission
will be to just
find out what's there," Hammond said. "With 71 percent of
the Earth covered by ocean, 'what's out there' is immense, and with
95 percent of that unexplored, unseen by human eyes, we have rich opportunities
for exploration and research."
The former
Navy ship Capable will be renamed soon when NOAA selects a winning ship
name from those submitted by teams of students challenged in a nationwide
contest to name NOAA's ship and to create a supporting science project.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety
through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events
and providing environmental stewardship of the nation�s coastal and
marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S.
Department of Commerce.
Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Explorer
NOAA
Office of Ocean Exploration
NOAA
Ocean Service
NOAA
Oceans Page
Media
Contact:
Fred
Gorell, Ocean Exploration,
(301) 713-9444 ext. 181
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