Hi! I'm Ensign Briana Pacheco, a junior officer in the NOAA Corps.
And I'm Dan Rogers, an ROV engineer with the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration.
Welcome to NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, America's ship for ocean exploration.
We only have five minutes to show you a 224-foot long ship, so let's get going.
Welcome to the bridge.
In my opinion, this is where all the fun happens.
One of the main components of the bridge is our Dynamic Positioning System, right here,
which helps us, as ship operators, maintain a position while the ROVs are under the water.
We have our radars here and here.
And thrusters here, which is all incorporated into the Dynamic Positioning System,
and, along with electronic chart system, which helps us navigate safely throughout all the waters.
This is my favorite part of being on watch. [horn blows]
This is the ROV hangar.
And this is where the Deep Discoverer ROV is kept between dives.
Now as you might know, the Deep Discoverer, or D2 ROV, is capable of going down to almost four miles below the surface of the ocean,
and we bring a variety of tools with us,
including high-definition video cameras able to get really tiny details on the rocks and creatures on the seafloor.
And sometimes, if something is of enough interest, we'll use our robotic arm to collect it
and bring it back up to the ship so that scientists can figure out what it is and where it came from.
D2 is always connected to the ship by a really long steel cable and we're gonna go see where that's stored on board.
But first, you're gonna need a pair of these.
Welcome to the winch room.
As you can tell, it's pretty loud in here.
This is our storage winch, which holds an eight-kilometer long steel cable that's a little over half an inch in diameter.
Inside that steel cable are the conductors and fibers that transmit the power and the video and
the control signals down to the ROVs when they're on the bottom of the ocean.
Right now, we're on our way down to the bottom, and you can see that the cable is being spooled out.
I think Bri wants to take you to the generator room now.
The Okeanos Explorer has four diesel generators that supply power to our motors
which in turn provide propulsion to the ship.
Our engineers keep the ship operationally ready so we can complete our missions and explore the ocean.
This is a place that's a little quieter. It's what we call the Dry Lab, and it's where a lot of the work goes on behind the scenes.
We have people working on video editing, producing all the highlights that you see on the website.
And people collecting and organizing all the data and information coming from the ROVs as they explore the bottom of the ocean.
And now we're going to take a look at the Control Room, the brains of the operation.
This is the Control Room,
and it's the center of operations for both the ROV and the mapping teams.
As you can see, the mapping team is hard at work, producing the bathymetry maps of the canyons, valleys, and mountains on the ocean floor.
These maps are used by scientists to identify areas of interest, and by the ROV team to ensure vehicle safety.
During a dive, the navigator, pilot, and co-pilot drive the ROVs,
while the video team ensures that we are broadcasting high-quality imagery over the Internet in real time.
But how do we get the video from the bottom of the ocean to you?
With our VSAT!
VSAT stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal,
and inside that golf-ball-looking structure is a satellite antenna that sends and receives data from shore,
including the video that you see on the Internet from the bottom of the ocean.
This is how we connect to you.
Here on Okeanos Explorer, safety is our top priority.
We always have our United States Public Health Service officer on board at all times
to provide care for our crew members and assistance in case of an emergency.
Welcome to the ship store. This where you can take a part of the ship home with you.
When we're not working, we like to do fun things, like watch movies or play video games in the lounge,
or work out in the gym. It's really important to stay active and happy while at sea.
Gee, I could really use a snack right now.
This is our mess deck.
A working crew is a hungry crew. This is where our stewards cook three meals a day for 49 people, every single day.
Oh look, the cookies are ready.
After a long day at work, it's always nice to come back and relax in our staterooms.
They vary in size. We have singles, doubles, and four-person rooms.
This is my home away from home.
Hey, turn out the lights!
Looks like our time is up. Thank you for coming with us on our tour.
We hope you join us on our next expedition, as we continue to explore the ocean.