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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Jan 25, 2007 23:46:58 GMT -5
Robot Subs in SpacePopSci innovator Bill Stone plans to drop one of the world’s most advanced underwater robots into the deepest hole on Earth. If all goes well, this thing just might help get him to the moon.By James Vlahos February 2007 NASA hopes to someday use a robot like Bill Stone's DepthX to explore Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter and one of the most probable places in our solar system to support life. When it is dark, cold and wet, when he is in a cave 4,000 feet below the surface of the Earth, when rock envelops him in a world devoid of life or color, Bill Stone dreams of space. He sees the icy expanses of Jupiter’s moon Europa, furrowed with ridges. He pictures the broad red dome of Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system, rising above a rocky Martian plain. And he sees himself: Driving a rover up from the tar-black depths of a lunar crater, cresting a rocky rim bathed in light. Bill Stone is not an astronaut—he is the world’s most famous expeditionary caver. Leading large international teams and backed by sponsors like the National Geographic Society, he has mounted more than 50 major expeditions to plumb the most hostile reaches of inner space. Spending weeks underground, his crews have traveled deep inside the planet to the remotest locations touched by humans. Nobody is better at what he does, but this gives him limited satisfaction. For Stone, caves are a proving ground. He is consumed by ideas for how humanity could explore and colonize space and wants to personally establish a privately funded base on the moon. It is, he thinks, nothing less than destiny. A reasonable observer might choose another word: obsession. Delusion. Fantasy. Stone possesses neither great wealth nor extensive political connections. He is an engineer and runs Stone Aerospace, a company so small that when FedEx rings, he usually signs for the package himself. So to hear Stone talk—“It’s not a quantum leap for me to go to the moon; it’s just a lateral transgression”—the conclusion seems sadly obvious. He’s nuts. But now, after spending nearly three decades on the margins of the space industry, Stone is closer than he’s ever been to proving that caves are the best earthly training ground for exploring space. Backed by a $5-million grant from NASA, he is developing a robot called DepthX that may turn out to be the most advanced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) ever. Like its inventor, DepthX is a caver, capable of navigating constrained, obstacle-filled environments. Its theoretical mission, though, is bold even by Stone’s standards: a hunt for extraterrestrial life on the Jovian moon of Europa. DepthX’s first major field trial will take place this month in Mexico’s Zacatón Cenote, the world’s deepest sinkhole. For Stone’s future space ambitions to have any chance, he needs to impress the new generation of wealthy space-crazed investors. To do that, he needs to ace this high-profile audition and, at 54 years old, he needs to do it fast. As one of his oldest friends puts it, “Time is running out for Bill.” Read the complete article here (7 pages)
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Jan 26, 2007 6:47:40 GMT -5
Wow, Being an engineer myself I am amazed at what Bill has accomplished. I wish him the best of luck and hope that his DepthX robot can fit the bill to do extra-terrestrial explorations of our solar system. It is quite possible for life to exist underground or under the surface of pools of liquids on other planets or moons. A device like this could find it first. Later human "cavernauts" could go and see it first hand.
Lets all hope Bill's robot works well and gets him his well deserved chance!
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Post by L Roebuck on Jan 26, 2007 10:09:19 GMT -5
Great article but I am facinated by robots! Bill Stone is impressive and he's a Caver! At the last Spencer Mountain Grotto meeting Marion O. Smith was telling a caving tale about a recent visit with Bill Stone. It is a small world, eah? It was interesting to read the robot’s predecessor helped map passges in Wakulla Springs, Florida which created the world’s first digital three-dimensional cave map. Ok here's my favorite quote's from the article: " To fully appreciate Stone’s case, you need to understand what it takes to be not just any kind of explorer, but a cave explorer."
"Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, an acquaintance of Stone’s, says that before hearing about the caver’s exploits, “I’d thought there could be no environment as hostile as the lunar surface. No more." And Bill is even developing a device that may eventually help cavers, space explores, etc, to recycle their own urine for drinking. Hummm
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Jan 26, 2007 17:40:54 GMT -5
I got to read the full article and am even more amazed and impressed with Bill's accomplishments. There are far too few people in the world that not only have the guts to explore extreme environments and take carefully calculated risks but also have the ability to make major advances when they do. Bill is one of these people. Simply amazing. Hats off to Bill!
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Feb 7, 2007 20:50:36 GMT -5
Bill is an amazing explorer and inventor. Most people, even many cavers, would be content with the accomplishments he already has credited to his name. A true explorer in every sense of the word. For anyone interested in keeping up with the DEPTHX or Bill Stone, there is a journal of the Project on his website: www.stoneaerospace.com/news-/news-zacaton-mission1.phpIf you scroll down to February 5, 2007 there is an entry about the milestone first true exploration run of DepthX at Cenote La Pilita.
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Feb 8, 2007 6:31:46 GMT -5
Great article on the DepthX bot in Mexico! I found this to be very interesting from dealing with customs officers and broken circuit cards to the actual dive data from the Cenote. I look forward to even more information in the coming weeks. This is cool!
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Feb 21, 2007 19:25:54 GMT -5
This article doesn't really contain any new information, but is worth taking a look to see the image of the purple scorpion photographed by the robot. --------------------------- Bill Stone’s bathtub subFebruary 21, 2007 by Chris Davies Designed to eventually exploring the subterraneous lakes of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, DepthX was recently put through its paces at an underwater cave in Mexico. Diving to 300 feet and recording photos and video, the robot built a 3D map of the area and moved about of its own accord, collecting samples and even spotting a rare purple scorpion. Article and photos
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Post by L Roebuck on Feb 23, 2007 8:30:25 GMT -5
DepthX robot submarine passes first testAs Popular Science reports, inventor/spelunker Bill Stone's DepthX robot submarine recently underwent its first successful test in Mexico's La Pilita underwater cave, which Stone hopes is only the first step on the bot's way to exploring Jupiter's ice-covered moon, Europa. After a slight delay with some suspicious border guards, the robot quickly got to work on its initial field test, diving some 300 feet down into the cave system, collecting samples, capturing images, and building a 3D map of the area. As the video after the break shows, the robot is definitely built to impress, with some decidedly sci-fi sounding sound effects adding the perfect final touch. According to Popular Science, DepthX will undergo another field test next month, to be followed by a considerably bigger challenge in May, when it'll dive more than 1,000 feet into the Zacaton, the world's deepest sinkhole. Full article
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Feb 23, 2007 19:51:14 GMT -5
I can't wait until DepthX's next challenge! I think the machine will do just fine! Bill Stone and his team have it figured out and this is a great advance in autonomous robotic exploration. I have no doubt their techniques can be used by other types of robots in other situations to map out surroundings and move about without a human at the controls.
This is cool stuff!
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Post by L Roebuck on Feb 28, 2007 11:14:31 GMT -5
There's some great information and photo's of The Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) project and Bill Stone on The Field Robotics Center website.
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Post by L Roebuck on Mar 1, 2007 9:15:53 GMT -5
NASA's Robotic Sub Readies For Dive Into Earth's Deepest SinkholeScience Daily — An underwater robot, shaped like a flattened orange, maneuvered untethered and autonomously within a 115-meter-deep sinkhole during tests this month in Mexico, a prelude to its mission to probe the mysterious nether reaches of the world's deepest sinkhole. Bill Stone, leader of the NASA-funded Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) mission, said the 2.5-meter-diameter vehicle performed "phenomenally well" during early February tests in the geothermal sinkhole, or cenote, known as La Pilita. Carnegie Mellon University researchers developed the software that guided the DEPTHX craft. "The fact that it ran untethered in a complicated, unexplored three-dimensional space is very impressive," said Stone, an engineer and expert cave diver who heads Stone Aerospace Inc. of Austin, Texas. That's a fundamentally new capability never before demonstrated in autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), he added. Full Article
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Post by L Roebuck on Mar 2, 2007 8:20:49 GMT -5
Deep/Underwater Cave Environments: Comments by William Stone at the First NASA Risk and Exploration Symposium STATUS REPORT Date Released: Thursday, March 1, 2007 Excerpt from: Proceedings from the NASA Administrator's Symposium: "Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea and the Stars" I've come from a rather unusual background in that I came up through engineering school wanting to be an astronaut, but had the good fortune of discovering that there were remaining places to be explored here on Earth in the meantime. As a teenager, I watched a couple of these guys who talked here this morning walk on the Moon. They were my heroes, and it was the U.S. space program that was directly responsible for my going out and getting a Ph.D. in engineering and wanting to work in space. In the process of trying to get into the Astronaut Corps at various times, I have also had the privilege of being involved with a large number of expeditionary projects dealing with things that go down into the Earth as opposed to things that go up. I added it up a little while ago. Over the last 26 years, I've spent 7 1/2 years in the field on expeditions, of which 353 days were below 1,000 meters deep underground, based from subterranean camps. So, I'm either a troglodyte or somebody who's looking for planetary exploration and hasn't been able to get off this pile of rock yet. What I am going to do here this afternoon is to rapidly take you to three of the most remote places that humans have ever reached inside this planet. This is serious business. It is more serious, in my opinion, than high altitude mountaineering, because of the multidisciplinary nature and the remoteness. I don't consider expeditionary deep caving as something you do for excitement. You do it because it's an opportunity to explore one of the last true frontiers on this planet. The classic distinction on this subject came from arctic explorer Vilhjalmar Steffanson, who once spent five years working solo north of the Arctic Circle. Interviewed about this one time, the reporter asked [Steffanson], "Well, you're an adventurer, aren't you?" He said, "Son, adventure is what happens when exploration goes wrong." Full Article
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Post by guanonoggin on Mar 3, 2007 8:08:13 GMT -5
Dudes - Stone Rocks! Cool article. I'm totally stoked about the quote at the end! This is frickin cool stuff man! Mega Karma points for Stone and his crew.
Chucko
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Post by madratdan on Mar 5, 2007 9:06:56 GMT -5
Dudes - Stone Rocks! Cool article. I'm totally stoked about the quote at the end! This is frickin cool stuff man! Mega Karma points for Stone and his crew. Chucko I totally agree with you Chucko.......That quotes the best I've heard in a while.
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Mar 8, 2007 18:20:23 GMT -5
Probe to explore deepest known sinkholeMarch 8, 2007 Courtesy University of Texas at Austin and World Science staff Scientists are returning this week to the world’s deepest known water-filled sinkhole, to resume tests of a NASA-funded robot submarine. The device is designed to seek out life in one of the most extreme regions of our planet, and possibly on other worlds. Cenote Zacaton, near Mexico's northeastern coast, is the deepest known water-filled sinkhole. (Courtesy U. Texas at Austin)The upcoming work at Zacatón is the second round of testing and exploration there with the probe. If it goes well, researchers say they’ll return in May to fully explore the system, which is only partially mapped, and its true depth unknown. Previously undiscovered microbes have been found in deep water and on rocks in Zacatón. Far below where sunlight goes, they may live off nutrients welling up from hot springs at the bottom, say the University of Texas investigators, doctoral student Marcus Gary and professor Jack Sharp. They speculate that more new life forms may await discovery in the depths. The robot exploration project is led by William Stone of Stone Aerospace, a company based in Del Valle, Texas. NASA funded the robotic probe, called DEPTHX, with $5 million. The device is intended for mapping underwater caves, measuring water chemistry, searching for microbes and other life forms, and returning samples for analysis. Cenote Zacaton is near the town of Aldama close to Mexico’s northeastern coast. It gained notoriety when two divers tried to reach the bottom in 1994. One, Sheck Exley, drowned. The other, Jim Bowden, survived, reaching a record depth of 925 feet. The tragedy caused scientists to rethink ways that Zacatón could be explored safely. Full Article
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on May 14, 2007 22:43:05 GMT -5
DepthX, now nicknamed "Clementine", began a two week expedition to explore the depths of El Zacatón today. ----------------------------------------------- Mexican Sinkhole May Lead NASA to JupiterBy Ceci Connolly May 14, 2007 It may not show up on MapQuest, but NASA scientists are betting that the best route to Jupiter and its ice-crusted moon Europa runs through an underwater cavern in Mexico. Though the space mission is probably 30 years off, the trek begins in earnest today outside the city of Tampico. A 60-ton crane is scheduled to lower a giant orange robot dubbed "Clementine" into what is believed to be the deepest flooded sinkhole in the world. For the next two weeks, the fully autonomous robot, which bears an uncanny resemblance to a Volkswagen Beetle, will plumb the previously inaccessible microbial mysteries of the sinkhole -- or "cenote" -- El Zacatón. Full Article
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Post by Brian Roebuck on May 15, 2007 5:25:04 GMT -5
Go Bill Go! I hope "clementine" does well down there. Why did they re-name it that? I'll have to go back to Bills webpage to see the progress. I think it is www.stoneaerospace.com if I remember. Cool!
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on May 15, 2007 9:20:27 GMT -5
;D I thought "Clementine" was an odd choice too. Maybe they were trying to inject a little humor into the project.
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Post by L Roebuck on May 15, 2007 9:58:37 GMT -5
Hummm...I wonder if they sing that song? Now I just keep hearing the lyrics...." Oh my darling, oh my darling, My darling Clementine" Anyway, I looked the lyrics up online and one verse goes " In a cavern, in a canyon, Excavating for a mine ..." Maybe that's why they dubbed it Clementine.
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on May 15, 2007 10:08:36 GMT -5
Ahh....so maybe that's the reason for their choice. I knew about the song, but didn't know about the cavern reference in the lyrics.
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Post by Brian Roebuck on May 15, 2007 18:50:14 GMT -5
Yep - leave it to Lynn to find a cave reference in that old song! Good find! I think someone else named a private rocket Clementine as well. I think the name actually has something to do with the old pioneers etc. This effort is definitely a pioneering adventure for Stone as well as NASA! Cool
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Post by L Roebuck on May 16, 2007 8:31:09 GMT -5
We used to sing that song in elementary school - so I kind of remembered it. There's a video of the Stone Aerospace DepthX Robot online - here's the LINK
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