Brian Roebuck
Site Admin
Caver
Caving - the one activity that really brings you to your knees!
Posts: 2,732
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Post by Brian Roebuck on May 17, 2007 5:59:10 GMT -5
Good linkage Lynn! It sounds like it should be easy to program a robot to not get too close to walls and to turn around etc but apparently it is tougher than most people think! I hope DepthX has a great mission and bottoms the cenote successfully!
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Brian Roebuck
Site Admin
Caver
Caving - the one activity that really brings you to your knees!
Posts: 2,732
|
Post by Brian Roebuck on May 22, 2007 20:52:30 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! Duh! I just read about the latest DepthX adventures on CNN here: www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/05/18/europa.robot.reut/index.htmland discovered the vehicle is shaped and colored like the orange or tangerine like fruit called a "Clementine". Odd that I forgot about enjoying some of those only a few months ago. No wonder the name sounded so familiar! Now you know the rest of the story! Gooooood Day!
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on May 25, 2007 10:12:50 GMT -5
This is about a week old, but gives more info about DepthX reaching the bottom of El Zacatón. Cool stuff! ------------------------------- Robotic submarine reaches new depths May 18,2007 Tom Simonite The autonomous DEPTHX probe is lowered into the world’s deepest water-filled sinkhole (Image: University of Texas) robotic submarine yesterday mapped the bottom of the world's deepest water-filled sinkhole in Mexico for the first time. Similar autonomous craft could some day be used to explore the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa, researchers hope. Entering El Zacatón Cenote in eastern Mexico for the first time on Wednesday, DEPTHX dived down to 270 meters, creating the first map of the giant cavity, which is large enough to swallow New York's Chrysler Building. The maps show that the sinkhole has a sloped bottom, about 290 meters at shallowest and extending down to over 300 meters. This means that two drivers who made a record-breaking scuba dive in 1994 in search of the bottom were just a few metres off the sloping floor. The sinkhole may be connected to even deeper caverns. At the bottom of the slope, was an area DEPTHX's could not probe. This could be simply a depression or the entrance to further caves. The researchers hope to send the probe back later this week to find out, and to explore any connected passages. The researchers spent Thursday collecting samples from the walls of the sinkhole at depths down to 270 meters. Previous exploration of sinkholes in the region have revealed previously unknown micro-organisms living in the mineral-rich, heated waters. Full Article
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