Several of the Pisces boats could
have done this work, but it really depends on the conditions on the bottom.
The nice thing about heavy work ROVs is the power available, and the safety
afforded its operators. A big vehicle will have up 200 hp for hydraulics,
heavy manipulators and huge thrusters for station keeping. And it's dangerous
down there on a wreck site, any kind of wreck site.
I've done work on deep water BOPs from a Pisces and from an Arms bell.
The control hydraulics and electrical connections all run down the riser
package, so it's hard to imagine how they are going to do what they want to
do, which is to activate the BOP cutters and seal the well at the seabed. I
wonder how much stuff is piled up on top and in the immediate
surroundings.
One of the best ops of its type was to use the ROV as the work platform
and do observation and control from a submersible. But I'm prejudiced that
way. There's nothing like putting what the US Navy calls the "Mark I Human
Eyeball" directly on site. No camera can compare.
They won't do it, of course. Or can't do it these days, as most of the
P-boats are in storage or museums and the two operational ones left are, as
you said, set up for research. If needed, they could get subs there, but the
ROV guys are very, very good at what they do, and will be losing sleep as we
speak. I wish them luck. Maybe someone will post video captures from the
work site one of these days. That would be really interesting.
Vance
-----Original
Message-----
From: Brian Cox
<ojaivalleybeefarm@dslextreme.com>
To: Personal_Submersibles@Psubs.
Org <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Thu, Apr 29, 2010 11:11
am
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] platform blow-out
That platform blow-out really sucks, I wonder what ROV's they're using down
there. It's so dam deep (5000') ! Very few manned submersibles could get
to it, and the ones that could are probably more set up for research than to
do actual work.
Brian
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