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ROPOS.
A remotely operated vehicle used at NeMO. ROPOS
descends to the seafloor on a fiber optic cable from the ship. ROPOS
has two manipulator arms, video cameras and lights, and many different
samplers and instruments. |
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Vent
fluid sampler. This is a specially designed
instrument that mounts on the bottom of ROPOS for taking samples of
high- and low-temperature hydrothermal vent fluids. It can also take
filtered samples and gas-tight samples for laboratory analysis. |
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Suction
sampler. This is a versatile sampler which
is mounted on ROPOS, and is somewhat like a vacuum cleaner. It can
sample fluids, sediment, and small animals in up to eight discrete
two liter sample bottles. |
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OSMO
sampler. This osmotic fluid sampler (developed
by MBARI)
is for long-term sampling of vent fluids, for example over a full
year between visits by ROPOS. It consists of an osmotic pump connected
to a very long piece of small-bore sample tubing. |
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Bottom
Pressure Recorder (BPR) The BPR measures
pressure which can be easily converted to depth measurements. The
BPR data will be transmitted to a surface buoy and monitored daily
via satellite communications as part of NeMO
Net.
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Bio-box.
This is a hydraulically-actuated Lexan box mounted
on the front of ROPOS mainly for biological sample storage and transport,
but also a convenient place to put other instruments and samples. |
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Bacterial
traps. These containers are microbial
colonization chambers so that microbes that produce mats on the seafloor
can be sampled. The traps are filled with glass-wool (as a substrate)
and allow microbes to enter but keep other grazing predators out.
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Time-lapse
camera. This camera has been deployed
repeatedly at Marker 33 to document biological colonization at the
site in between the annual site visits with ROPOS. |
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Elevator
mooring. This device is used to transport
samples and equipment from the seafloor to the surface (or visa versa),
without requiring ROPOS to leave the bottom during a dive. |
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NeMO
Net. This
is a state-of-the-art engineering system that allows scientist in
the lab to communicate with instruments on the seafloor. An acoustic
modem links seafloor instruments to a surface buoy and then data is
relayed to shore by satellite. |
