Chris Murphy working on Camper on deck.

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iBase ID

75352

Creator

Linder, Christopher

Title

Chris Murphy working on Camper on deck.

Type

Still Image

Date

09/11/2007

File name

graphics/agave2/cl_20070730_agave07_camper_006.jpg

Notes

Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, other researchers faced other challenges. The robotic vehicle Jaguar had aborted its mission to investigate an area on the seafloor where signs of hydrothermal vents were found. Instead of surfacing, it lingered on the bottom, more than 4,100 meters (2.55 miles) deep. Engineers tried to send a command to Jaguar to surface, but it could not receive the signal. So they devised another strategy. Chris Murphy, a MIT/WHOI Joint Program graduate student, is rigging electronic equipment from Jaguar's sibling robotic vehicle, Puma, onto another vehicle, Camper, which was ready to go down to the seafloor. The equipment included an acoustic modem, a device that sends sound signals in seawater. The idea was to try to get a command signal to Jaguar by sending it from the seafloor, a much shorter distance than from the ship.

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