Underway: VISIONS’20 Expedition. Watch Jason at work on the sea floor.

The ROV Jason rises from the deep after diving in the International District Hydrothermal Field. Credit: University of Washington.

ROV Jason is at sea on the R/V Thompson for a 30-day maintenance cruise to service the Regional Cabled Array. From University of Washington’s Interactive Oceans: Jason will again be diving to depths as great as 9500 ft beneath the oceans’ surface, on the highly active summit of Axial Seamount where underwater hot springs covered…

Using samples collected by ROV Jason II and Nereus, Scientists analyzing hydrothermal fluid from Piccard vents at Mid-Cayman Rise found “non-biological processes deplete hydrogen that was thought to be readily available to subseafloor microbial communities; discovery could impact global hydrogen budget.” Read the article here.

Jason Sylvan from Texas A&M talks about exploring the East Pacific Rise at 9°50’N in HOV Alvin. “I was blown away with just how much different it is actually being there and looking out a window and seeing the site right in front of you,” he told Gizmodo. Watch the video and read the whole…

The final phase of an overhaul that will allow the submarine to dive to 6,500 meters is underway. Read the whole story here.

When COVID-19 shutdowns stranded ROV Jason and AUV Sentry in the South Pacific, the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) planned to put the vehicles on a commercial carrier vessel and get them back to Woods Hole as quickly as possible. But the journey home was far from simple, according to Kevin Kavanaugh, a field operations coordinator at NDSF who managed the journey every step of the way while working from home. “With COVID-19 travel restrictions and border closures, getting these vehicles back was quite the logistical challenge,” he said. In early March, the vehicles were in Fiji awaiting pick-up by R/V Thomas G. Thompson for a science expedition. But Thompson was rerouted from Fiji at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, and then the country closed all ports except Suva. Since there is no direct ship traffic from Suva to the U.S., the NDSF team started looking for a passage via New Zealand. When Kavanaugh secured space on a container ship for the vehicles, which travel in nine shipping containers, that vessel broke down and was pulled from service. Then—as if managing transit during a global pandemic wasn’t difficult enough—Tropical Cyclone Harold closed the port of Suva for two days. When Jason and Sentry were finally loaded on a vessel bound for Tauranga, New Zealand nearly six weeks had elapsed. Since then, transit has proceeded smoothly. From New Zealand, the vehicles were loaded on another vessel and bound for Long Beach, California, where they arrived earlier this week. Presently, they are on their way across the U.S. in tractor trailer trucks. Sentry Team lead Sean Kelley is eager to have his vehicle back home and feels the journey won’t be complete until they unpack Sentry and perform a deck test to assess its status—a necessary step before he can decide how exactly to proceed. “Sentry hasn’t been back in Woods Hole since last summer and since then it has been shipped all over the world,” he said. Both the Jason and Sentry Groups have adjusted their maintenance to accommodate the shutdown. Up next for Sentry is testing a new mission controller that will allow the vehicle to map the seafloor while it traces patterns other than the standard parallel line configuration. Jason is scheduled for a scientific cruise out of Newport, Oregon, in July and will be in Woods Hole only briefly. But this won’t prevent the Jason Group from making the most of the two-and-a-half weeks the vehicle will be on shore. “We’ll check and repack the vehicle,” said Jason Group Lead Matt Heintz, “At the same time, we’ll test a new Jetway power system, a 10km cable, and do some maintenance on the overboard handling system.” When Jason arrives in Oregon for its next cruise, Heintz has requested that the facility in Newport allow his team to continue work on Jason during their two-week quarantine period before the cruise begins. Everyone is looking forward to having the vehicles back in-house, according to NDSF Director Andrew Bowen. “They are after all just robot machines, so it’s not quite the same as welcoming someone home,” he said. “But I am quite sure everyone will have a collective sigh of relief when both vehicles are back in Woods Hole.”

Getting Jason and Sentry back to Woods Hole in the face of cancelled expeditions, closed ports, and tropical cyclones

Living in a confined space in response to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders is nothing new for Bruce Strickrott. As a pilot of human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin and manager of the Alvin Group, he has spent years making his life at sea. Read the interview to learn the routines that serve him best.

“Now an $8 million upgrade to the submersible powerhouse Alvin will allow WHOI researchers nearly unprecedented access to some of the most inaccessible corners of the world’s deepest waters, helping us once again to remember what it means to be amazed.” Read an opinion piece on the Alvin upgrade in the Cape Cod Times.

Following guidance from UNOLS and our host site Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the National Deep Submergence Facility is monitoring the situation related to COVID-19 closely and taking appropriate actions to keep our team and users safe. We are in the process of bringing all vehicles back to their home port in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.…

Read an interview about the Alvin of the future with submersible pilot and manager of the Alvin Group Bruce Strickrott.

Alvin offloading from the Atlantis by crane.

Watch Alvin return to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the final phase of the overhaul that will allow it to reach 6500 meters depth. Building on work begun in 2011, this process is part of the sub’s regular maintenance cycle, in which Alvin returns to Woods Hole and the team disassembles it, inspects every part,…

Posts by Hannah Piecuch

Underway: VISIONS’20 Expedition. Watch Jason at work on the sea floor.

SciTechDaily: Hydrothermal fluid from Picard Vents leads to discovery that transforms understanding of hydrogen depletion at the seafloor

Gizmodo: “It really is otherworldly”

Overhaul to take Alvin to greater extremes

Taking the long way home

Cape Cod and the Islands Magazine: Lessons on Small Space Living from a Submarine Pilot

Cape Cod Times: Plunging into the final frontier

COVID-19 information for NDSF user community

Cape Cod Times: WHOI’s Alvin to reach new depths after $8M upgrade

Welcome home, Alvin!