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A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

economist.com

21–30 of 93 posts

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#21
post #19
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In prior cruises in the Atlantic, the firm has, according to Josh Broussard, its technical director, managed to scan 890 square kilometres a day using six autonomous submarines. With eight, Mr Broussard thinks that the new mission will be able to manage 1,200 a day—enough to have covered the original search area in just 100 days. Seems up to the job, and while 8 may not be a swarm of bees, I think for deep sea subs i…

Surely it should be a school?

Pod?

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#22
post #10

I wonder what other interesting things they'll discover doing the search. Surly they've already stumbled upon lots shipwrecks in the search for MH370?

Blaine Gibson[1] did find a lot of wreckage on the coast of Africa and complains that the investigation didn’t consider how close it could have come to Africa [2], which would have been associated with an entirely other flight path after going offline, and I don’t remember what was the bureau’s answer about that.

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/asia/blaine-gibson-mh370/index...

[2] French TV documentary about this complaint: https://youtu.be/ir-PBqynwII

Bonus: Just found that: http://www.thehuntformh370.info/

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#23
post #19
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In prior cruises in the Atlantic, the firm has, according to Josh Broussard, its technical director, managed to scan 890 square kilometres a day using six autonomous submarines. With eight, Mr Broussard thinks that the new mission will be able to manage 1,200 a day—enough to have covered the original search area in just 100 days. Seems up to the job, and while 8 may not be a swarm of bees, I think for deep sea subs i…

Surely it should be a school?

Yeah actually kidding aside, why not that? Maybe the idea is that robots are more like insects than fish, but that seems a bit exotic imo.

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#24

It astounds me that they wouldn't already have used the best equipment on the market? I mean, it's the most prominent underwater search of recent decades, funded by three sovereign states. My gut feeling is that some people in power do not want this plane found.

Do not underestimate the power of thousands of meters of water.

[deleted]

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#25

This is what a HUGIN submarine drone looks like (from the manufacturer's site): https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/B3F...

> When you purchase a HUGIN AUV you join the our family. That's an interesting point of view. I guess it's common with really expensive things?

Not necessarily...InstantPot told me that when I bought their ~$100 device

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#26
post #10

I wonder what other interesting things they'll discover doing the search. Surly they've already stumbled upon lots shipwrecks in the search for MH370?

Probably not as many as you may think - first, consider the sheer scale of the Indian ocean. Second, open-ocean sailing only became commonplace in the last 200 years. Before then, if you were going from say Spice Islands to Zanzibar, you would hug the mainland Asian coast line as long as possible, except for "short" jumps across the Arabian sea and bay of bengal.

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#27

It astounds me that they wouldn't already have used the best equipment on the market? I mean, it's the most prominent underwater search of recent decades, funded by three sovereign states. My gut feeling is that some people in power do not want this plane found.

As a sibling comment alludes, everyone underestimates how astoundingly vast Earth's oceans are.

I did too, until I looked out the window on my first daytime flight over the sea. A seemingly endless stretch of unbroken blue. It was probably the next best thing to being in space and made me appreciate just how much water there is!

And that's just the surface.

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you purchase a HUGIN AUV you join the our family. That's an interesting point of view. I guess it's common with really expensive things?

Not necessarily...InstantPot told me that when I bought their ~$100 device

And are you invited to an instant pot user conferences too?

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#29

This is what a HUGIN submarine drone looks like (from the manufacturer's site): https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/B3F...

> When you purchase a HUGIN AUV you join the our family. That's an interesting point of view. I guess it's common with really expensive things?

Your submarine gets a free baptism by the godfather of typos

Re: A swarm of submarine drones will scour the depths for MH370

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you purchase a HUGIN AUV you join the our family. That's an interesting point of view. I guess it's common with really expensive things?

In the first world, it's also common with motorcycles, which are one of the most inexpensive forms of private powered transportation. The shared traits among motorcycles and an AUV include a more adventurous risk profile, affinity for mechanical devices, and less ubiquitous uptake than alternative forms of transportation.

Or even just an expectation that the product is going to require some DIY maintenance, and mutual support from other users. With, for instance, 3D printers, this works in inverse proportion to the expense of the purchase... if you buy a cheap one, you are joining a community - you don't expect it to be perfect, but tinkering and optimizing is likely part of the attraction in the first place. If you buy an expensive one, it's most likely because of a straightforward business need and you're going to rely on the manufacturer for support like any other product.
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