Specifications
General
| Length: | 7.0 meters (23.1 feet) |
| Beam: | 2.6 meters (8.4 feet) |
| Draft: | 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) surfaced |
| Height: | 3.6 meters (11.6 feet) |
| Operating Depth: | 6,500 meters (21,325 feet) |
| Normal Dive Duration: | 6-10 hours |
| Gross Weight: | 20 metric tons (40,000 pounds) |
| Speed: | 0-2 knots (0-2.3 mph) |
| Science Basket Payload: | 181.4 kilograms (400 pounds) |
| Personnel Sphere Volume: | 4.8 cubic meters |
| Personnel Complement: | 1 pilot, 2 observers |
Observation
- 5 viewports: 3 forward (17” diameter), 2 side (12” diameter)
- Overlapping fields of view
Electrical Power
- 2 banks of lead-acid batteries, each 120 V, 140 AH
Communication
- Redundant acoustic telephones (voice or code)
- Marine band (VHF) radio
- Sound-powered phone
- Digital data link through USBL/SMS
Imaging
- 2 Optim Premium 4K UHD video cameras with individual pan and tilt
- 2 Kongsberg OE14-522 HD pan/tilt/zoom cameras near viewports
- Additional situational cameras available
- Three 7” HD LCD flat panel displays for in-hull viewing
- 4K video recorders
- Hand-held digital camera for use in personnel sphere
Lighting
- 12 lighting channels, each 10A, fused at 80A total
- Multiple positionable LED lamps
- Situational and emergency lighting
- Down-looking survey lighting
- Lasers for optical size reference
Propulsion
- 7 thrusters
- Forward, reverse, lateral capability
- Auto heading, altitude, and depth
Vehicle Sensors
- Fiber-optic PHINS gyrocompass
- Redundant depth sensors
- Teledyne RDI Workhorse 600kHz Doppler velocity log
- Sonardyne AvTrak USBL transceiver
- GPS sensor
- Forward-looking Kongsberg obstacle-avoidance sonar
Navigation
- Dedicated in-hull navigation with touch screen display
- Bottom tracking Doppler velocity log
Manipulators/Sampling
- 2 Schilling Titan 4 manipulators with 7 degrees of freedom on swing arms
- ISE manipulator with 6 degrees of freedom
- 16 sq ft sample basket with 181 kg (400 lb) payload
- Free-ascent elevator with 90 kg (200 lb) payload
- Scientific sampling devices: water samplers, tube corers, bio boxes
Scientific Instrumentation Support
- Power: 12, 24 and 120 VDC switched circuits available
- Hydraulics: 6 available hydraulic circuits
- SeaBird SBE49 CTD
- Digital sensor interface
- Hard-wired sensor interface
- Integrated data system
- In-sphere laptop computers
- In-sphere SeaLog-specific iPads
(Illustration by E. Paul Oberlander, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
The National Deep Submergence Facility is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
