Skip to content

We put the deep ocean within reach.

 Our Vehicles. Your Tools.

NDSF operates a fleet of underwater vehicles that enables the oceanographic community to explore, sample, and map the deep ocean and to meet the needs of a changing research landscape.

HOV ALVIN

A 3-person research submersible capable of reaching 6500 meters depth and of supporting custom sensors and samplers. The Alvin Team delivers reliability built from more than 5,000 successful dives.

ROV JASON

A time-tested remotely operated vehicle system capable of multi-day missions to 6500 meters. Observers get real-time, HD video and data, as well as physical samples from the seafloor.

AUV SENTRY

A flexible, fully autonomous vehicle rated to 6000 meters that carries a wide and growing array of instruments. The Sentry Team is also skilled at carrying out multi-vehicle missions.

Dive with us

Plan an expedition

From proposal preparation to cruise logistics to data access, we help you execute a successful research mission.

» Learn more

Use cases

Learn how NDSF vehicles can increase data collection and take better advantage of your time at sea.

» Learn more

First time user?

Learn how our assets can extend your research to depths you may have never thought possible.

» Learn more

Robot Rescues!

August 29, 2023

ROV Jason assists in the recovery of three autonomous research platforms-two of which were unplanned-during the Visions 23 expedition to the Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array.

Read the article

Mission accomplished!

July 31, 2023

The PROTATAX23 Science Team and members of the Jason Team on deck of R/V Thomas Thompson. (Photo by Thompson AB Elena Wisecarver, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) The numbers and teamwork that made PROTATAX23 a success   The dives are over, samples are stowed in freezers, Jason is strapped to the deck, and R/V Thomas Thompson…

Read the article

Volcanos, vents, and creatures of the deep, oh my (Part 2)

July 28, 2023

Jason uses an isobaric gas-tight (IGT) sampler to collect fluids flowing from a hydrothermal vent in the Pacific that supplies chemicals supporting lush, vibrant ecosystems. (hoto courtesy of Stefan Sievert, WHOI/NSF/ROV Jason, 2014) The ROV Jason Teams’s most memorable dives   The Jason Team knows regions of the ocean floor like other people might know…

Read the article

Volcanos, vents, and creatures of the deep, oh my (Part 1)

July 27, 2023

In 2015, Jason explored the inside of the Havre volcano on the seafloor near New Zealand. (Photo courtesy of Dan Fornari and S. Adam Soule, WHOI, and Rebecca Carey, Univ. of Tasmania/NSF/WHOI-MISO) The ROV Jason Teams’s most memorable dives   The Jason Team knows regions of the ocean floor like other people might know paths…

Read the article

Deep-sea access is more important than ever

July 26, 2023

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellow Bonnie Teece working with a major water sampler after a Jason dive. These samplers, invented after the discovery of hydrothermal vents, are capable of sampling vent fluid are places where water temperatures in exceed 400°C. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Q&A with NASA Jet Propulsion…

Read the article

Our eyes and hands on the seafloor

July 25, 2023

WHOI Associate Scientist Maria Pachiadaki with her instrument miniSID, which can perform experiments at hydrothermal vents while on the seafloor. (Photo by Hannah Piecuch ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Q&A with WHOI marine microbiologist Maria Pachiadaki on sampling the deep ocean with Jason   What has fascinated me for years are oxygen-minimal zones in the midwater-or…

Read the article