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2021 Technology Demonstration

Past Expedition

Dates

May 14-27, 2021

Location

Atlantic Ocean

Vessel

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer

Overview

From May 14-27, 2021, NOAA Ocean Exploration will lead the 2021 Technology Demonstration on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. The expedition provides an opportunity to test several technologies that will allow the ocean exploration community to explore deeper, farther, and more comprehensively than previously possible. Expeditions like this are vital for the advancement of ocean exploration technologies that will benefit partners and the broader field of ocean exploration alike in our collective mission to explore, map, and understand the vast ocean realm.

Map of the general operating area for NOAA Ocean Exploration’s 2021 Technology Demonstration. Highlighted features include the ship track, including the sites of eight autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dives and 12 CTD casts, and bathymetry data collected.

Expedition Summary

From May 14-27, 2021, NOAA Ocean Exploration led the 2021 Technology Demonstration aboard NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as it sailed from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. The expedition provided the opportunity to scope the potential for expanded NOAA Ocean Exploration sampling operations and to test technology that may one day enable the ocean exploration community to systematically, explore hadal depths.

August 18, 2021

Live Interaction Dives Into a Fictional Ocean to Learn About A Real One (Ours)

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May 20, 2021

After recovering the CTD, a scientist attached a tube to each Niskin bottle and transferred collected water into plastic jugs where it was taken into the on-ship lab to be filtered for later analysis.

Testing the Use of Environmental DNA to Explore the Deep Ocean

During the 2021 Technology Demonstration, we will be collecting water samples to detect environmental DNA, also known as “eDNA,” throughout the water column. eDNA is the genetic material that organisms leave behind in their environment (for example, in sediment or water). By collecting and analyzing this genetic material left behind, species can be identified within an environment without scientists ever having to see them. eDNA has many applications and is widely used at NOAA.

May 19, 2021

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Figure 1: Even 10 kilometers (more than 6 miles) down, life finds a way.

The Hadal Zone: Aqua Incognita

If there is any place on Earth that can be considered terra (or more accurately, aqua) incognita, it is the ocean’s hadal zone. Named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, the hadal zone extends from a depth of 6,000 to 11,000 meters (3.7 to 6.8 miles). It is made up primarily of widely separated ocean trenches and troughs that together occupy an area about half the size of Australia, but new regions of hadal seafloor are still being discovered.

May 19, 2021

Orpheus AUVs will enable exploration of the ocean’s greatest depths.

Expedition Plan

From May 14-27, 2021 NOAA Ocean Exploration will lead the 2021 Technology Demonstration on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Norfolk, Virginia. The expedition provides an opportunity to test several technologies that will allow the ocean exploration community to explore deeper, farther, and more comprehensively than previously possible. Expeditions like this are vital for the advancement of ocean exploration technologies that will benefit partners and the broader field of ocean exploration alike in our collective mission to explore, map, and understand the vast ocean realm.

May 4, 2021

WHOI engineer Casey Machado (left) and NASA JPL engineer Russel Smith prepare Orpheus for a 2019 expedition

Orpheus Class Vehicles

Orpheus is both the new class of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of reaching the ocean’s greatest depths and the first vehicle of the class. Two identical Orpheus AUVs were built in 2018, named Orpheus and Eurydice after the famous pair from Greek mythology who adventured through the depths of Hades.

May 4, 2021

A DriX unmanned surface vehicle, within its docking system, is seen being fitted by engineers into the davits of NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson

Introducing the NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute

The NOAA Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute (OECI) is one of 20 NOAA Cooperative Institutes, each of which is made up of academic and non-profit research institutions that demonstrate the highest level of performance and conduct research that supports NOAA's mission goals and Strategic Plan.

May 4, 2021

Figure 1: Artist's impression of the autonomous underwater vehicle Nereid Under-Ice (NUI) navigating over the seafloor of an ice-covered ocean

Ocean Worlds

For a long time, planetary scientists thought Earth’s ocean was unique in the solar system. After all, Earth is the only planet that orbits our sun in the “Goldilocks Zone” that is neither too hot, nor too cold, for liquid water to exist on the surface. For that reason, astrobiologists have looked to exoplanets — planets circling other stars — for signs of oceans like our own that might harbor extraterrestrial life in order to answer one of the oldest questions humans have asked: “Are we alone in the universe?”

May 4, 2021

The Mars helicopter Ingenuity will collect images as it flies, partly to navigate the surface of the planet. The Mars Helicopter will attempt to take images of the Martian surface.

Terrain Relative Navigation: From Mars to the Deep Sea

The lack of GPS on Mars forced NASA engineers to come up with a new method of wayfinding to support critical activities during the current Mars 2020 mission. Instead of signals from satellites in orbit, they used features on the surface of the planet as the basis of a vision-based system known as Terrain Relative Navigation.

April 29, 2021