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Re: Various

On Tue, 12 May 1998 20:38:26 -0700, "Marsee Skidmore"
<heyred@email.msn.com> wrote:

> 20,000 foot depth capability covers 98% of the ocean bottom. To go deeper
> than that, you need to find a trench.

Exactly. Makes for a very flexible AUV if it can cover that much of the
ocean.

Of course, it costs an enormous amount more to go all the way to the
bottom, which is almost twice as deep.

Interestingly, the US Navy built an AUV with a cylindrical carbon-fiber
composite pressure shell, which has a 20,000 foot depth rating.

The nice thing is, the smaller your sub is, the easier it is to make it
pressure-safe. There's a bottle of champagne sitting on the bottom of the
North Atlatic, intact with cork, at 12,500 feet (from the Titanic).

With a sub that is only three feet long and a foot in diameter, building a
20,000 foot capable shell should be much easier (and cheaper) than one that
would be big enough for people to go in.

Of course, like most things in life, it's all relative...

Later,
Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------
   Jon Hylands      Jon@huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon

  Project: Micro Seeker (Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
           http://www.huv.com