So what would you do?
No, not in terms of packing or getting ready to go to the most remote place in the world!
What would you do if you wanted to see what’s on the bottom of the ocean?
Yes, you can SCUBA dive, as we learned, but there are limitations. You can only go down to about 130 feet, you can only stay down a limited time, maybe 5 minutes, and it’s potentially dangerous as well as cumbersome with all the equipment you have to lug around and then wear.
So, what would you do if you wanted to go past 130 feet - past the safe diving limit of a diver?
In Antarctica we want to dive down to 300 feet or maybe even 2000 feet.
What would you do if you wanted to stay down a lot longer? What would you do if you wanted to investigate an area for a few solid hours because the area is so unknown and interesting and because it is so difficult to get to that spot in the first place?
In Antarctica, we have very limited time for actual research. We cannot go to the places on the ice that we want to study in the middle of summer because the ice that supports us will be melting and we cannot go in the winter because it’s even colder and it’s dark. That leaves us with the few months of October, November, and parts of December. In these three short months we have to get as much data as we can.
So how would you get down to the bottom in –1.9°C degree water, when it’s about –23 degrees Celsius (-11 degrees Fahrenheit) outside with an oh so gentle – 48 knot wind howling around your ears?
Furthermore, what would you do if you wanted to check out something that’s in a really remote spot under the ice, far away from civilization, safety, and supplies? What if there’s no town nearby and no road that would bring you there?
The answer my friends, (yes.. in some ways it is blowing in the wind) is SCINI!
SCINI - coming towards you!
So what is SCINI?
If we look at her name it stands for “Submersible Capable of under Ice Navigation and Imaging”. In simpler language, she’s an underwater robot built especially for harsh environments like Antarctica. Relating SCINI to what’s going on in the US at the moment, she’s an ROV (a remotely operated vehicle) similar to though very different from the ROVs that are being used to help clean up and fix the BP oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico.
The pilots that “fly” SCINI do not go underwater to navigate her. Instead, they stay on the surface in a comfy, cozy, heated control room (a room which some consider to be more cramped, claustrophobic, and freezing) and steer her with the aid of a joystick while watching her movements on monitors and computer screens. A high-definition camera, mounted on the front of SCINI, allows the pilots to see what SCINI sees and special navigation instruments help the pilots guide SCINI and troubleshoot potential technology problems. Yes, all you gamers out there – it is a little bit like a video game. I have been told though, that the better pilots are ones that did not grow up playing Nintendo or Wii. (Also, don’t tell our pilots that they’re “just” playing video games all day – It’s actually much more complex than video games and much more expensive if they mess up. The pilots also have to know significantly more than just how to control a joystick)
DJ flying SCINI in Antarctica 2008
We will get into more details and specifics in upcoming journals, but if you want a few more details, check out our Engineering page.
If you want a brief video introduction to SCINI, listen to Stacy give a brief overview of SCINI and of what SCINI helped them with last year.
If you want to see SCINI in action and see some absolutely amazing underwater footage of SCINI and a SCUBA diver, check out this must-see YouTube (created by Henry Kaiser).
After having seen that, aren’t you ready now to get into science, building ROVs, SCUBA diving, or finding some way to head down to Antarctica to help in whatever way you can just so you can be a part of something as amazing as this?