Milestone-Proposal:Ocean Exploration Technologies: Difference between revisions

From IEEE Milestones Wiki
No edit summary
Tag: New redirect
 
(One intermediate revision by one other user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Proposal
#REDIRECT [[Milestone-Proposal:Alvin: Deep Human Occupied Research Submersible, 1964 to 2019]]
|litigation=No
|more than 25 years=Yes
|within fields of interest=Yes
|benefit to humanity=Yes
|regional importance=Yes
|ou is paying=Yes
|ou is arranging dedication=Yes
|section is taking responsibility for plaque=Yes
|a11=Yes
|a3=1964 to present (2019)
|a1=Alvin: Deep Human Occupied Research Submersible, 1964 to 2019
|plaque citation=Alvin has permitted a crew of three to explore the seafloor as deep as 6500m.  Launched in 1964, Alvin relocated a lost H bomb off Spain in 1966.  Hyperbaric microbiology was stimulated by observation of inhibition of bacterial decomposition of a deeply deployed crew lunch in 1969.  Hydrothermal vents were discovered in 1976 leading to more than 5000 dives through 2019 to study the seafloor.
|a2b=Providence Section
|IEEE units paying={{IEEE Organizational Unit Paying
|Unit=Providence Section
|Senior officer name=Jason Gaudette
|Senior officer email=jason.e.gaudette@ieee.org
}}
|IEEE units arranging={{IEEE Organizational Unit Arranging
|Unit=Providence Section
|Senior officer name=Jason Gaudette
|Senior officer email=jason.e.gaudette@ieee.org
}}
|IEEE sections monitoring={{IEEE Section Monitoring
|Section=Providence Section
|Section chair name=Jason Gaudette
|Section chair email=jason.e.gaudette@ieee.org
}}
|Milestone proposers={{Milestone proposer
|Proposer name=Albert J. Williams 3rd
|Proposer email=awilliams@whoi.edu
}}
|a2a=86 Water St., Woods Hole, MA 02543; 41-31.5N, 70-40.3W
|a7=Smith Laboratory of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where Alvin was designed, taken to sea and deployed.  It is operated by WHOI but owned by US Navy.  The proposed mounting site is in sight of the WHOI Guards.
|a8=Yes but the office where most of the early designers had desks is upstairs from a coffee shop and not suitable for a plaque.
|mounting details=The mounting will be where a former fire call box was mounted outside on a brick wall at eye level.  It is near the wooden welsome sign to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with a map and other information.
|a9=The plaque can be approached freely and touched but the night watchman and weekend guards can see and protect the plaque as they can do for the Smith Building plaque on the opposite wall that has stood for 50 years.
|a10=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
|a4=Alvin was the first mobile deep diving research vehicle.  The bathyscaph Trieste was earlier,1960, (and deeper) but was practically more of an elevator.  It was only when scientists discovered things not seen from cores and trawls that the science of seafloor discovery began and even then it was slow to start.  But the discovery of hyperbaric microbiology lead to a new field and, though accidental, was an Alvin accident.  Hydrothermal vents were the biggest discovery attributed to Alvin and led to a great deal of biological and geological scientific study which is ongoing more than 40 years later.  Technical developments were required by observational needs such as high resolution color digital cameras (1976), trim and ballast tanks, and manipulators, subsequently copied on other submersibles.  One of the developments leading to more general underwater navigation was the acoustic ALNAV array of transponders that permitted a surface ship to know Alvin's location.  Lighting and pressure resisting plexiglass windows were needed for observers to see and photograph what was on the seafloor.  Samplers used with manipulators allowed sample collection into thermally insulated and even pressure sealed containers for recovery to the surface for cold, hyperbaric studies of the unusual life forms found at hydrothermal vents.
|a6=Initially, few scientists felt it necessary for anyone to go to the seafloor to see what was there so reluctance at the start meant there had to be push from a few scientists, Allyn Vine for one, rather than pull by biologists or geologists.  But when discoveries began to be made, the scientists' attitude changed.  Eyeballs inside Alvin for seafloor observations remained unchallenged until Remote Operated Vehicles and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles came along in 1976 and later.
|a5=Alvin has an operational capability that exceeds other, later submersibles, with close coupling between the engineers and scientists to maximize the discoveries possibles.  The discovery of living communities of animals at deep, dark, cold hydrothermal vents followed by the discovery of very hot hydrothermal smokers with their own communities revealed a life system powered by chemical systems rather than photosynthesis.  This last realization, based upon Alvin observations, has led to a belief among many that life on earth may have started at hydrothermal vents and perhaps may have done so on other planets or moons of the solar system.  Availability of Alvin to scientists from other research institutions through UNOLS scheduling has permitted observational and experimental work to be done by the best in the world.  Maturity of the operations of Alvin means that the number of dive days per year exceeds other deep diving submersibles giving an advantage to scientists using Alvin.
|submitted=No
}}

Latest revision as of 19:49, 30 January 2020