Info Titanic

[Jared0425]

I would like to see autonomous ROVs with compact laser scanners going around and inside these wrecks. ROV autonomy isn't sophisticated enough yet, but I expect definitely within the next decade, they will be. But outside of the wrecks, those can be scanned to submillimeter accuracy today.

As I have found with my own expedition in Greece in September, it requires people willing to cough up enough money. Fortunately my budget (not including the Newton Labs PL3200UW-LW that I purchased) to be $118K. I don't think my budget would go very far for doing the same thing with the Titanic as we will have with the Mentor.

Perhaps you would like to share the details of the expedition on the wreck thread?

Unless you are under a non-disclosure agreement or are waiting for the waters to clear.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Perhaps you would like to share the details of the expedition on the wreck thread?
Unless you are under a non-disclosure agreement or are waiting for the waters to clear.

The only thing I can't talk about is the other shipwrecks we will scan in addition to the Mentor. The Mentor is public information (see attached article). The other shipwrecks are not. As the CEO of the NGO in Greece and the chairman of the board of the 501c3 in the US, I'm only limited by the above.

We will be supporting the Mentor Shipwreck Excavation Programme providing laser scanning services (The Mentor Shipwreck Excavation Programme).

As I mentioned, the only shipwreck that I can discuss publicly is the Mentor, Elgin's ship that he used to transport some of the antiquities from Greece. That ship sank off the coast of Kythera, outside the vilage/harbor of Avlemonas, in late 1802. It took about 2 years for Kalymnian sponge divers to retrieve all 17 boxes of antiquities (see second attached article).

Given that sponge divers didn't start diving with surface supplied air until 1865, but rather freediving holding a rock tied to a rope to the boat (so they can get it back), retriving the cargo was non trivial (source: Greek sponge diving). I have been unable to find more details about the challenges in retrieving the cargo.

The purpose of the non-profit and NGO is to introduce cutting edge technology to underwater researach, not just maritime archaeology, but also marine biology, marine geology, etc.. We are starting in Greece, but hope to work with a number of American universities with active maritime archaeology programs. In our first expedition this coming September, the technology we are using is the PL3200UW-LW laser scanner from Newton Labs combined with the Mission Specialist Defender ROV from VideoRay. I actually purchased the laser scanner as the company we were working with (a competitor to Newton Labs) pulled their support due to larger business/sales opportunities (hard to argue with the US Navy). VideoRay has been gracious to rent us their ROV with navigation, a package that runs close to $200K. Add the laser scanner, that's almost a $300K solution, about the same that Fabien Cousteau told me it costs to hire a company to conduct laser scanning for 2 weeks.

We have hired a Greek filmmaker who has won multiple awards for short film documentaries. He will be creating a short film documentary that is focused on the merits/benefits/results of the laser scanner/ROV package, not so much about the expedition. Its purpose is purely fundraising and will be available online and free to distribute in its entirety. The only modification allowed would be to add subtitles for different languages. Any university will be free to use it when requesting funds from alumni/grants/etc..

As we own the laser scanner and hopefully will acquire the ROV and navigation system in the next couple of years (but can rent in the meantime), we will be able to do projects continuously. I'm actually hoping to collaborate with educational instituttions and a company that does a lot of survey work to make use of the laser scanner at no cost. It doesn't make sense for the laser scanner to be sitting in my garage most of the time.

Now when we collaborate with @mariosx, that's when things get REALLY interesting.

Any questions, ask away.