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Unmanned sub protected the Pope
BY DAVID MCLENNAN
DEFENCE REPORTER
22/08/2008 12:00:00 AM
The military used a remote-controlled submarine to help ensure the safety of Pope Benedict during World Youth Day, it was revealed yesterday.
Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said the Navy and Defence Science and Technology Organisation used an unmanned underwater vehicle to inspect a 9.5km stretch of water near Barangaroo Wharf before the Pope arrived there last month.
''The use of autonomous submersibles, such as the one used in this case, saves enormous time and resources as well as reducing the exposure of human divers to potentially hazardous situations,'' Mr Snowdon said at the launch of the organisation's new research facility in Sydney yesterday.
He said robotic technologies, which the organisation was investigating for military applications, were also being used to help create three-dimensional virtual representations of Sydney Harbour, Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane to assess security risks and develop counter-measures against a potential terrorist attack.
He also launched the organisation's ''top 10 science and technology reports'', as voted by staff and former defence scientists.
''It is not surprising that the top 10 papers selected were those that illustrated world-leading science and the pioneering work of Australia's defence scientists; namely metal fatigue and full-scale fatigue testing, a wet process for photocopying, coastal surveying with airborne laser, a new method for thermo-elastic stress measurements, aircraft repairs with composite materials, computer information security, surveillance with over-the-horizon radar, and a reliable new process for screening certain chemical weapons,'' he said.
''The favourite paper, as voted by staff, was the story of the development of the black box flight recorder, now used on all passenger aircraft throughout the world.''
Some of the deepest parts of the gulf have been documented by scientists researching hydrologic sea vents some 6,500 feet below sea level in an area known as the Guaymas Basin. Scuba divers have explored the marine life that's close to the surface, up to 120 feet.
Seamounts are typically extinct volcanos that rise from the ocean floor but do not reach the surface. The tips of some may be submerged thousands of feet, but others rise close enough to the surface to be accessible to scuba divers.
Scientific interest in seamounts has grown over the past decade. Nobody knows for sure how many there are: About 15,000 have been identified worldwide, but researchers estimate they number closer to 100,000, said Karen Stocks, assistant research scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD.
Stocks has been compiling research on the biology of seamounts on a Web site called Seamounts Online. The underwater mountains “have the potential to tell us a lot about how species arise in the oceans and how they move around,†Stocks said. “It seems like some seamounts have a lot of endemic species.â€
Also driving interest in seamounts is the threat from overfishing by deep-sea trawlers. “Some are being fished very heavily,†Stocks said.
The expedition happened almost serendipitously. The sub's owner is Steve Drogin, a retired San Diego real estate developer and underwater photographer, who offered the use of his submarine free to the museum for a worthy project. The DeepSee, as the submarine is known, has room for a pilot and two passengers, and includes searchlights, a robotic arm and external cameras.
Ezcurra took up the offer from his friend Drogin. He joined Scripps scientists Brad Erisman and Octavio Aburto to assemble a team of experts and raise $300,000 to underwrite expenses, including the use of the research vessel Argos. Donors include the Walton Family Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and Mexico's National Institute of Ecology.
“We have so few opportunities to get into the water and see what things lie beyond scuba depth,†said Bruce Robison, an oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is preparing his own expedition to the gulf's seamounts. “Any chance we have to explore is incredibly valuable.â€
Robison is leading a multidisciplinary team planning to spend three months in 2010 in the Gulf of California, studying its biology, geology and chemistry. “We may learn more about what we can expect in the future off the coast of California†from the higher temperatures in the gulf, Robison said.
The specialists who are part of the San Diego Natural History Museum's expedition hope they will discover species.
Ezcurra said he believes they will see much biodiversity on the underwater mountains, if his experience on land is any guide. “It wouldn't surprise us, but to actually measure that is important.â€
Unmanned sub protected the Pope
BY DAVID MCLENNAN
DEFENCE REPORTER
22/08/2008 12:00:00 AM
The military used a remote-controlled submarine to help ensure the safety of Pope Benedict during World Youth Day, it was revealed yesterday.
Defence Science and Personnel Minister Warren Snowdon said the Navy and Defence Science and Technology Organisation used an unmanned underwater vehicle to inspect a 9.5km stretch of water near Barangaroo Wharf before the Pope arrived there last month.
''The use of autonomous submersibles, such as the one used in this case, saves enormous time and resources as well as reducing the exposure of human divers to potentially hazardous situations,'' Mr Snowdon said at the launch of the organisation's new research facility in Sydney yesterday.
He said robotic technologies, which the organisation was investigating for military applications, were also being used to help create three-dimensional virtual representations of Sydney Harbour, Port Botany and the Port of Brisbane to assess security risks and develop counter-measures against a potential terrorist attack.
He also launched the organisation's ''top 10 science and technology reports'', as voted by staff and former defence scientists.
''It is not surprising that the top 10 papers selected were those that illustrated world-leading science and the pioneering work of Australia's defence scientists; namely metal fatigue and full-scale fatigue testing, a wet process for photocopying, coastal surveying with airborne laser, a new method for thermo-elastic stress measurements, aircraft repairs with composite materials, computer information security, surveillance with over-the-horizon radar, and a reliable new process for screening certain chemical weapons,'' he said.
''The favourite paper, as voted by staff, was the story of the development of the black box flight recorder, now used on all passenger aircraft throughout the world.''
Some of the deepest parts of the gulf have been documented by scientists researching hydrologic sea vents some 6,500 feet below sea level in an area known as the Guaymas Basin. Scuba divers have explored the marine life that's close to the surface, up to 120 feet.
Seamounts are typically extinct volcanos that rise from the ocean floor but do not reach the surface. The tips of some may be submerged thousands of feet, but others rise close enough to the surface to be accessible to scuba divers.
Scientific interest in seamounts has grown over the past decade. Nobody knows for sure how many there are: About 15,000 have been identified worldwide, but researchers estimate they number closer to 100,000, said Karen Stocks, assistant research scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD.
Stocks has been compiling research on the biology of seamounts on a Web site called Seamounts Online. The underwater mountains “have the potential to tell us a lot about how species arise in the oceans and how they move around,†Stocks said. “It seems like some seamounts have a lot of endemic species.â€
Also driving interest in seamounts is the threat from overfishing by deep-sea trawlers. “Some are being fished very heavily,†Stocks said.
The expedition happened almost serendipitously. The sub's owner is Steve Drogin, a retired San Diego real estate developer and underwater photographer, who offered the use of his submarine free to the museum for a worthy project. The DeepSee, as the submarine is known, has room for a pilot and two passengers, and includes searchlights, a robotic arm and external cameras.
Ezcurra took up the offer from his friend Drogin. He joined Scripps scientists Brad Erisman and Octavio Aburto to assemble a team of experts and raise $300,000 to underwrite expenses, including the use of the research vessel Argos. Donors include the Walton Family Foundation, the Nature Conservancy and Mexico's National Institute of Ecology.
“We have so few opportunities to get into the water and see what things lie beyond scuba depth,†said Bruce Robison, an oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is preparing his own expedition to the gulf's seamounts. “Any chance we have to explore is incredibly valuable.â€
Robison is leading a multidisciplinary team planning to spend three months in 2010 in the Gulf of California, studying its biology, geology and chemistry. “We may learn more about what we can expect in the future off the coast of California†from the higher temperatures in the gulf, Robison said.
The specialists who are part of the San Diego Natural History Museum's expedition hope they will discover species.
Ezcurra said he believes they will see much biodiversity on the underwater mountains, if his experience on land is any guide. “It wouldn't surprise us, but to actually measure that is important.â€