ROV Jason V17

The Jason team rotates the vehicle in place for latching into the 3200 lb Benthic Experiment Platform for installation at the Oregon Shelf site. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V16.

A diverse suite of displays allow monitoring of ROV operations in the control van during the dive to the Pythias Oasis Site discovered by, then, University of Washington School of Oceanography undergraduate Brendan Philp. The central large display shows the "Gusher" site, ringing by orange anemones and adjacent clams. The Jason manipulator holds a temperature probe used to measure the warm fluids. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V17.

The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason, operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is a robotic vehicle that is used to recover and reinstall (turn) much of the Secondary Infrastructure (e.g., instruments, junction boxes) on the Regional Cabled Array. For this expedition Jason will work at water depths of 80 m to 2900 m. The vehicle is tethered to the R/V Roger Revelle by a fiber-optic cable that allows real-time communication to and from the ship and the ROV, as well as providing power to the ROV.

Last year, Jason was modified to meet special requirements needed to work on the Cabled Array - these include heavy lift capabilities ( up to ~4,000 lbs) and the ability to latch into the junction boxes and Shallow Profiler Mooring components for recovery and reinstallation. As part of this modification, Jason is  now a 1-part vehicle system without the need for Medea. Instead floats are used to dampen wave action.