Deep Sea News

USS Ohio. Photo from Wikimedia

What started off 2 years ago as a joke by sub enthusiasts, will now be a reality. The Navy has made it clear that it wants to allow women to serve on submarines and is has hinted it is prepared to make those moves toward renovating quarters for the new occupants. Making up nearly 14% of Navy, women are increasingly become more important to the Navy’s operation. They grow up wanting to explore the deep sea just as much as any man and do just as good as a job.

What is impressive is that the Navy took the first step and it is a strategic move in more than just rightly promoting gender equality, as pointed out in Connecticut’s TheDay.com:

In addition to the fairness of providing women the same opportunities as their male counterparts, there are practical reasons for the change. It is an ongoing challenge for the Navy to recruit enough men to serve aboard submarines. Because of the unique challenges of submarine service, submariners face more rigorous intellectual and psychological standards. Permitting women would significantly expand the pool of potential recruits.

But there are some strange oppositions to this. From what I’ve read, it really breaks down into women invading the ‘good ole boys club’, as hinted by this retired Navy captain writing in the Arizona Republic and the following news clip from CBS:

Submarines present a unique environment, and to anyone who has served on them as I have, the reasons to exclude women are obvious.

First, submarines are extremely cramped; space is at a premium and every inch is used for needed equipment, weapons, sensors and supplies. To accommodate women, costly design modifications would be required and take space needed for higher priority items.

Secondly, putting men and women together in very confined quarters for long periods of time submerged (up to two-plus months) is simply asking for trouble, both aboard the submarine and potentially on the home front.”

These attitudes are troubling on multiple fronts. Not sure how women take up much more space than men in a bunk. Is all the hair dryers and make-up? They hint that sharing bathrooms is a problem. Well, on research ships where we often have mixed crew, quarters are assigned such that bathrooms are shared by all members of the same sex. Surely, this could be arranged?

Most disconcerting is that this discussion appears to a priori assume women are to blame for the potential to cause problems because of their presence. Or is it just me? There seems to be a subtle tone that women will arrive on subs and total sexual anarchy will result. The comment in the video about worry there will be more sexual harassment lawsuits is probably NOT THE WOMEN’S FAULT if she is being harassed. There seems to be this belief that women will invade the married man’s sanctuary and steal your husbands!1!!1!!  If these “rigorous intellectual and psychological standards” that are required are true, then surely married men can control themselves on (and off) the job? Shocking as it may seem to prime time network TV viewers, but not all male-female interactions need have sexual overtones.

I’ll close with this bit of hindsight from TheDay.com that reminds us:

“Many of the concerns about allowing women aboard submarines – lack of privacy, fears of fraternization, disrupting crew morale and camaraderie – are the same heard when the Navy first allowed women on support ships in 1978 and on combat ships in 1994. Most apt to the discussion about allowing women on submarines is the fact the Navy now has gender-integrated crews on ships once considered too small for mixed crews, such as mine hunters.”

The world of patenting is quite different from the world of science. Weaving through the legalese and dry writing is horrendous at time. I am doing some research on patents to understand how knowledge of the deep-sea has permeated through society. One the examples I found is described below.

In 2000, one Cyrus Milanian of Florida was awarded a patent for his invention of “Re-enactment of a deep-sea voyage to the bottom of the sea”. In other words, he built an amusement ride intended for a freshwater lake in association with a hotel casino that was titanic themed. As you might guess the dream sunk, but he must have been determined to get credit due and sought out to patent his wild ride. Below are some of the schematics. The entire patent is available freely at the USPTO and Google Patents.

As you can see, Fig. 1 is the trackway through a lake or freshwater body. I wasn’t sure how he intended to replicate the deep-sea in a freshwater lake. I’m guessing Disney World-style props. Fig. 2 shows the view of the “conveyance”, or submarine. It is attached to a monorail that is out of sight for the passengers. Looks like it would have a cool ride!

This week’s TGIF comes from a post I read on Penguin Wanderings. Craig and I are looking into these as our new base of operations for Deep Sea News.

See all 10 at Oobject.com: 10 Dry Land Submarines.

Scubacraft 3 in submersible mode

Boat…check.  Submarine…check.  Scuba platform…check. Submarine , boat, and dive platform…check.  The Scubacraft 3 and 6 are the newest ultimate watercraft.  Price tag?  Well, that is not important right now.  What is important is that this is on Dr. M’s Christmas wishlist.  The SC’s are advanced twin-tunnel composite hull and deliver on the surface a 50 mph top speed on an air cushion.  All the hydrodynamic control is brought with a 4 stroke fuel injected engine and underwater with jet drive powered by a high performance pump.  However, keep in mind this boat is a dive platform.  You can ride it below the surface, baby!  The SC have intuitive dive controls, multiple dive capability, a stable submergence procedure, onboard GPS and dive computer, and onboard air supply with backup.  And the coolest feature? VHF radio and and underwater comms. The 6 person SC6 has a range of 150 miles and provides 90 minutes of run time on the 4×24V lithium maganese batteries. How deep can you go? 50 meters with an underwater speed of 3 knots.

You can experience the video here.

Scubacraft 3 in ultrafast surface mode

Jim Moore is a bay area concept artist working in the games industry. I became familiar with is artwork when Jim won the Scion Artist Intersection Contest grand prize at Kongregate. He won with the his amazing illustration Whale Sub (visit link for full resolution image).  Being both a fan of steampunk art and nautical themed art, I asked Jim if we could post this excellent piece here.  Jim graciously accepted and further provided the commentary before.  Head over to Jim’s Drawing Board to see more of his artwork.

Generally the intersection of art and science is lamentably brief at best, but this piece was a wonderful opportunity to combine a bit of mechanical engineering and a little applied marine biology. This piece originated as a simple whimsical ship design, but in the process of researching naval vessels I discovered the French and Spanish were experimenting with wooden hulled submarines as early as the mid 1800s. The problem was was that they were so bulkily designed they barely moved!

So putting on my victorian scientist hat, I took up the challenge of designing something using the tech of the time that would be a bit more effective. I naturally turned to the natural world for inspiration and scoured the seas for a suitable model. Although fish would seem to be a natural choice, they are generally built for either chasing things to eat or avoiding things that eat them. Neither speed nor maneuverability were high on my list, and the vertical orientation common to many tropical fish seemed ill suited to dealing with crashing surfacewaves. Mantas and sharks were another early target with a better shape, but their locomotion relies on either whip like movements to propel them, or using their flexible bodies as a control surface, neither of which seemed plausible given the limitations of the materials of the time.

Finally, it hit me that nature has already designed the perfect submarine- able to rest at the surface amongst the tides, with a slow but powerful propulsion system which could be replicated with rigid parts, and large enough to accommodate a small crew…the lovely and talented Balaenoptera musculus!

***UPDATE Prints and cards can be purchased here

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which commissions research for the Defense Department, gave Electric Boat a truckload of money in 2006 to design a small submarine to transport people and cargo at 100 knots (about 115 miles an hour).  The program name…Underwater Express. Not the most imaginative name. I would have went with Rapid Death Squid or something like. Electric Boat is ready to unleash next year a quarter-scale model to be tested off the coast of Rhode Island or Kevin’s bathtub depending on availability.

So how does Electric Boat plan to obtain 100 knots?  Science Baby! When an object moves fast enough through water a gas bubble is created around itself and effectively eliminating any drag. This process called supercavitation allows an object to speed along at a much faster speed.  Toward the end of WW2 the Soviets had created a torpedo that utilizes supercavitation but scaling up to another sub is whole other bottle of vodka. Electric boat will demonstrate this concept in action with 8 ft diameter 100 ft length “model” in the spring of 2010 where the demonstration will include a 10 minute run at speeds up to 100 knots.

You can see what this process looks like modeled or around a designed foil and propeller below the fold.

In addition, the navy is exploring and developing submarine launched drones through its Irregular Warfare Office.  According to an interview with Rear Adm. Mark W. Kenny by Special Operations Technology reporter Scott Gourley, Ohio-class guided-missile subs are not outfitted with drones. In the interview Rear Adm. Kenny outlined a specific torpedo sized submarine drone called Sea Stalker.  Sea Stalker is over shoulder right now! “The [concept] is to launch these from submarines at night,” Kenny said. “They will transit to offshore, anchor, put their antennas out and begin collection. Ideally you would have a series of these … to cover different ports or hotbeds of terrorist activity. And then you would collate that information on board the ship.”

There is no reliable photographs of any these available yet, either artist renderings or mistaken identities.
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MATE International Competition ROV 2009. A student built ROV carrying out a "rescue mission" on a troubled submarine. Photo courtesy of VideoRay / Steve Van Meter.

The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s International Student ROV Competition just occurred in Buzzard’s Bay, Mass.  This is the competition for those who already won in 16 regional competitions.  The competition featured 54 student teams representing middle schools, high schools, home schools, community colleges, universities, after-school clubs, outreach programs, and 4-H and Scout clubs, from five countries.

This year MATE worked with OceanWorks International and the Deep Submergence Systems Office at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to develop the missions focusing on real submarine rescue training exercise. Student teams were required to build and pilot ROV’s to inspect a simulated submarine for damage, deliver emergency supplies, and replenish the onboard air supply, among other tasks.

The winners of the Explorer Class were Long Beach City College of Long Beach, Calif who took first and are vetrans of the competition earning top ranks in engineering, presentation, and performance as well as being the only team to complete all the pool missions.  Second place went to Flower Mound Robotics of Flower Mound, Texas and third when to Sea-Tech 4-H Club of Skagit County, Washington.  The team also won the “Sharkpedo” award for innovation and originality, and was recognized for being the most safety-conscious team.

The Ranger Class was taken by the Canadians with Dalbrae Academy of Mabou, Nova Scotia taking first place aand Heritage Collegiate of Lethbridge, Newfoundland taking second.  But my hold stomping grounds took third place.  Monterey Academy of Oceanographic Sciences of Monterey, Calif. earned overall third place. Team member James Caress received one of three Ranger class “Engineering MVP” awards.

Students obviously bringing an A game to the MATE International ROV Competition 2009. Photo courtesy of VideoRay / Steve Van Meter.

Observations from the JSL

from Eclectic Echoes…

The JSLs are unique vehicles for deep sea exploration with their distinctive full transparent acrylic sphere for the pilot and scientist. The sad thing is these are still highly productive vehicles (two of the youngest in the fleet) and there are no similar subs out there, in fact there are only about 16 manned research subs currently in operation world wide. It would especially be a shame if two of the research subs most suited to intermediate continental margin and continental shelf exploration were retired by the very same institution that was just selected as the lead institute for the Harbor Branch Consortium, which will be NOAA’s new cooperative institute. Two of their new primary missions will be “exploration and research of frontier regions of the eastern continental shelf and beyond, and improved understanding of deep and shallow coral ecosystems.” I would think this would be an excellent fit for the Sea Links. On a personal note, Alvin and the JSLs were inspirational to me when I was younger. I remember the National Geographic spreads from JSLs especially. To this day when someone says manned sub, my mind’s eye sees the Johnson Sea Link II*