A unique down-looking view of a ROV recovery at night. Carl VerPlanck captured this image by strapping his camera to a crane and extending it 30-ft above the deck.

A unique down-looking view of a ROV recovery at night. Carl VerPlanck captured this image by strapping his camera to a crane and extending it 30-ft above the deck. Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Galápagos Rift Expedition 2011. Download larger version (jpg, 3.4 KB).

Preparing for One Last Dive
July 24, 2011

There is much to do before our last possible dive on Monday, July 25. Though we completed a very successful ROV dive on the off-axis sulfide mounts today, the ROV Team will likely be working late into the evening. Seirios's HMI lights failed soon after this morning's launch and a vertical thruster on Little Hercules also failed. The Team expects the HMI light issue will be a relatively easy fix. However, The vertical thruster is likely more problematic. The thruster had failed the previous day and had been replaced with a spare. Because we lost the spare the very next day, the ROV Team must look deeper into the system to find the problem. We're hoping that they'll be able to get everything operational in time for one last dive tomorrow morning.