Underwater robots search for lost wreck in the Arctic - video

In 1845 the famous explorer and sailor Sir John Franklin left the British Isles to carry out an expedition to sail from the Baffin Sea to the Bering Sea. He intended to complete the mission using two vessels, HMS Erebus and Terror. Unfortunately, both ships and Sir Franklin himself were lost for the next centuries.

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It was only in 2014 that a Canadian expedition found the remains of the vessel HMS Erebus in the ice maze of Nunavut – an Arctic territory that belongs to Canada. Now the explorers are following suit and moving further north to find the wreck of a second lost vessel – the Terror. In the process, they will also conduct another exploration at the site where the remains of HMS Erebus were found.

To conduct underwater exploration in such difficult and demanding conditions, the searchers will use a full arsenal of high-tech equipment, including two underwater vehicles of the Canadian company Deep Treker. Their reliability and quality of service have already been tested in the demanding waters of the Great Lakes Region, located on the border between the US and Canada.

The robots are the size of a basketball and weigh only 8 kg. Both the weight and their small size make them very useful and functional devices for exploring the most inaccessible places. They are also easy to transport. One of the devices has just returned from Hawaii on a cruise plane, where it was used to explore the wreck of the USS Arizona.

The batteries are mounted on the device, which “slims down” quite a bit the diameter of the wire connecting them to the surface. This has reduced resistance, which is particularly important in areas with high currents.

When visibility is good, the robots use video images, when visibility is poor they use sonar images. In addition, they have an arm that can grasp and lift various objects, which allows for a number of simplifications and applications, such as collecting samples, cutting ropes or nets, and even examining the thickness of the hull.

The mission to find the Terror ship will end in mid-September and only then will we know more details about its progress. For now, all information is being gathered and the team does not intend to make it public until the work is completed.

It is quietly hoped that information can be gathered to recreate the last days of Sir John Franklin and his crew. This would constitute an important page in the final chapter of this remarkable story, which ended without a happy ending for the 19th century daredevils.

Source: motherboard.vice.com