ARTEMIS 2015 - Robotic Exploration Beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf
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ARTEMIS in the Water

11/4/2015

3 Comments

 
​By Peter Kimball
Picture
ARTEMIS sits fully submerged in the drill hole. The culvert liner glows in the dive lights used to check the vehicle orientation and mechanical clearance. (photo: Peter Kimball)
Yesterday (Monday), we submerged ARTEMIS in the Ross Sea for the first time.  This is a huge milestone for us, but also one that we hope will feel insignificant soon as we progress to more ambitious operations.

The day started with priming of the pumped water instruments and sampling lines.  These need to be filled with seawater (and emptied of air) before ARTEMIS can go in the water for buoyancy adjustment.  The science team used a Niskin Bottle sampler to bring up seawater from beneath the culvert for this purpose.  Meanwhile, the software and mechanical teams prepared the vehicle for submersion.

The actual dunking process was slow as we were very careful about mechanical interference between the robot and the culvert.  We were able to fully submerge ARTEMIS and record its weight in water using a calibrated dial spring scale from Crary lab supply.  This was the first step in the critical process of ballasting ARTEMIS to sit at near neutral buoyancy in the water of the Ross Sea.
From McMurdo and from our field site, the sun crosses over Mt. Discovery (or behind just two weeks ago!) at about midnight.  The weather was a little nasty yesterday, but easing as we finally left the field site a little after 11 pm.  The low sun and easing weather provided an epic view to the South as we headed home for the night.
Picture
Nighttime sun glints off of continental ice beyond Mt. Discovery. (photo: Peter Kimball)
3 Comments
Laughlin
11/4/2015 03:54:53 am

Congrats, and best of luck in your upcoming dives! May the water stay clear, and the currents under the shelf be kind!

Reply
Maria
11/4/2015 02:33:31 pm

Good work! Best wishes for continuous success with the testing. Also enjoyed the nature photo. Maria


Reply
Justin
1/11/2016 07:33:25 am

Tons of work to get to that point....

Reply



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    ARTEMIS is part of the SIMPLE project, supported by NASA ASTEP.

    About the Blog

    This is the personal blog of Peter Kimball and Evan Clark, following our deployment with the ARTEMIS long-range underwater robotic vehicle to explore beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

    Authors

    Peter Kimball
    Peter Kimball is an aerospace engineer and field roboticist on the Stone Aerospace ARTEMIS project.
    Evan Clark
    Evan Clark is a computer scientist and field roboticist on the Stone Aerospace ARTEMIS project.
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    Kristof Richmond is a mechanical engineer and field roboticist on the Stone Aerospace ARTEMIS project.

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