Deepsea Challenger
 Drawing of the DCV1, according to the Deepsea Challenger website (not to scale)
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
The Deepsea Challenger is a 7.3 m high deep sea submarine that was built to dive to the deepest point of the seas. On March 26, 2012, James Cameron achieved the second manned dive with this vehicle and at the same time the first solo dive to the bottom of Challenger Depth at a depth of 10,898 meters.
history
The Deepsea Challenger was designed and built in secret in Australia from 2005 to 2012. The Australian engineer Ron Allum was in charge .
Although existing technologies were used as far as possible, important components were developed from scratch. The syntactic buoyancy foam is much more tensile than buoyancy materials available until then, so that the buoyancy body of the submersible is at the same time the only supporting structure. The material consists of hollow glass spheres and aramid fibers in an epoxy resin matrix that is hardened under hydraulic pressure.
The electric drive motors were also specially developed. These are electronically commutated DC motors with integrated control electronics and oil filling. In addition, the LED arrays, lithium batteries, cameras and pressure hull feedthroughs are special developments.
All components were subjected to a pressure test in the company's own 1400 bar pressure chamber before installation . Only the passenger pressure hull had to be tested at the Pennsylvania State University as one of two sufficiently large pressure chambers worldwide.
technical description
hull
The passenger pressure hull is a ball made of high-strength steel with an inner diameter of 1090 mm and a wall thickness of 64 mm. The compressive strength was recalculated with a 3D scan of the finished sphere using FEM , since the deviation from the exact spherical shape has a significant influence on the stability. The test pressure was 114 MPa. The ball is attached to the lower end of the float by means of tension belts. The entrance hatch has a conical window made of acrylic glass (PMMA) that points downwards at an angle during the dive. It is equipped with a high-resolution camera that transmits the image to a monitor in the pilot's field of vision.
The float makes up 70% of the boat's volume and is also the load-bearing structure. It consists of a special foam with a specific weight of 700 kg / m³. The deep-sea submarine stands upright when diving. This keeps the flow resistance low when diving up and down. The rate of descent and ascent achieved is around 4 kn using the ballast that can be released. Two foldable stabilizing fins keep the submersible upright and steady.
The ballast that can be released consists of iron plates weighing 450 kg on the lower part of the fuselage. The ballast discharge is implemented with multiple redundancies. It can be triggered by the pilot in the event of a power failure, after about 13 hours due to corrosion of a tether or a thermal break bolt.
machine
The twelve oil-filled, pressure-compensated drive motors are mounted three times horizontally and three times vertically on both sides of the float. They allow a horizontal speed of 3 knots and a vertical speed of 2.3 knots. They are controlled via a joystick and an automatic depth and course automatic.
The energy supply is implemented with lithium polymer batteries in oil-filled, pressure-compensated housings. Up to 70 blocks, each with 1 kWh of energy, are visible in the sides of the fuselage under a transparent cover.
Special equipment
The main equipment is cameras and lamps. In addition to the Red Epic 5k with more than 4k resolution on the window, there are a pair of HD cameras for 3D recordings on a 6.6 m long boom and two HD cameras on the manipulator , one of which has a macro lens . In the interior there is another pair of 3D HD cameras that films the pilot. The front of the hull carries a large number of LED panels. More lamps are attached to a second boom and above the hatch. In clear water, it can illuminate an area up to 30 meters away. In addition, a manipulator with a sampler and a sample container are installed in the lowest part of the fuselage.
The top part carries lamps, flashing lights and GPS receivers.
Battery.
A drive motor.
The lower part contains the pressure hull. Here is a ballast release mechanism.
The 1: 1 model of the pressure hull.
Hatch and window.
Interior of the 1: 1 model.
Calls
The first test drives took place in January 2012 at Australia's Sydney Naval Yard. Tests at 1000 meters followed in February. In March the tests were carried out at a depth of 8,221 meters in the New Britain Trench .
Challenger low
On March 26, 2012, the Deepsea Challenger set off from the ROV base ship Mermaid Saphire for her record dive to Challenger Deep . The descent took 2 hours 37 minutes and the time at the bottom about 3 hours. The maximum diving depth was measured to be 10,908 m. That is a few meters less than the Trieste reached in 1960 at the same point. It was the first solo dive at this depth and the longest time on the bottom.
Whereabouts
In June 2013, the Deepsea Challenger was presented to the public in several US cities ( California Science Center in Los Angeles , Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas , Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta , Washington, DC ). On June 14, 2013, it was handed over to the Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole by James Cameron . So that the scientists, engineers and technicians of the institute could study the structure and the technical solutions in detail, the submersible vehicle was dismantled into its individual assemblies and reassembled in cooperation with James Cameron's engineering team.
In July 2015, the submersible was to be loaned by the Woods Hole Institute to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. On the way from Woods Hole to Baltimore, the submersible was damaged on July 23, 2015 when a fire broke out on the semi-trailer during the journey. James Cameron explained that key assemblies such as the pilot pressure hull, motors, manipulator, and other complex and expensive assemblies were not damaged by the fire.
There is a full-size replica at La Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg .
Web links
- www.deepseachallenge.com
- NGS video: Cameron's return from Challenger Deep
- ronallum.com
- Voices from the deep - Acoustic communication with a submarine at the bottom of the Mariana Trench- Report of the Australian Acoustical Society with a focus on underwater communication during the dives (PDF; 555 kB), accessed on February 14, 2019
- The Ballad Of Ron Allum- How a self-taught engineer sent James Cameron to the Mariana Trench and back- Report of the American journal Popular Sciences on the creation of the submersible , accessed on March 13, 2019
- Technology of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE Expedition Part 2 of 3ːDEEPSEA CHALLENGER - Report of the journal Ocean News & Technology about the construction of the submersible , accessed on November 16, 2019
- Technology of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE Expedition Part 3 of 3ːDEEPSEA CHALLENGER - Report of the journal Ocean News & Technology about the construction of the submersible , accessed on July 9, 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ news.nationalgeographic.com
- ↑ a b Ron Allum: Isofloat. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 8, 2017 ; accessed on June 10, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ron Allum: Designing Systems For The Deepest Point of Earth. Retrieved October 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b Deepsea Challenger Pilot Sphere. Retrieved October 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Deepsea Challenge: Equipment. Retrieved October 13, 2014 .
- ↑ Deepsea Challenger Systems in Technology. Retrieved October 13, 2014 .
- ↑ National Geographics explorer James Cameron's expedition. Retrieved October 14, 2014 .
- ^ WHOI Welcomes Explorer and Director James Cameron and the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. Retrieved January 29, 2016 .
- ^ WHOI Welcomes Explorer and Director James Cameron and the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER. Retrieved January 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Deepsea Challenger submersible catches fire on I-95. Retrieved January 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Director James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger Submarine Scorched in Truck Fire. Retrieved January 29, 2016 .
- ↑ DEEPSEA CHALLENGER La Cité de la Mer.Retrieved October 14, 2014 .
