Jason II / Medea

Jason II

Jason I, a remotely operated vehicle or ROV, retired in 2002 after 14 years of service. Jason II was commissioned and put into service in July 2002. Jason is designed for deep sea oceanographic work. Jason can deploy and recover a wide range of sampling equipment and can collect rocks, sediments and organisms. Jason can also take water samples and determine temperatures.

Jason is part of a 2-body system and works in tandem with a suppressor weight called Medea. Medea is suspended directly from the ship by a 10,000 meter cable and bobs up and down as the ship rocks with the ocean waves. A neutrally buoyant umbilical cable runs from Medea to Jason and allows Jason to travel without the affects of the rocking ship above.

Jason II weighs 8000 pounds and can travel to a depth of 6,500 meters, almost 4 miles. Jason uses syntactic foam for floatation. This special foam doesn't compress under the extreme pressures at these depths. Jason has titanium pressure vessels for the sensitive electronics and special oil filled boxes for the pressure tolerant electronics and wire junctions.

For deploying and recovering test equipment, collecting and sampling, Jason has two 7-function manipulators. These manipulators are like robotic arms with hands that twist and turn as the pilot on the ship directs.

Jason also has two swing arms and a sliding drawer for sample storage. Jason can carry 300 pounds of equipment and/or samples. Jason is equipped with 5 single-chip cameras that transmit videos continuously to the control room on the ship. There is no sunlight at these depths and Jason has 4 HMI lights on the bow and 2 quartz lights on the stern. Medea has a down looking camera so the pilots can keep Medea over Jason, within a comfortable working range. This camera also provides the scientists with a view of the sea floor surrounding Jason.

In the control room on the deck of the ship, there are 2 pilots--one for Medea and one for Jason. A navigator watches a computer screen and coordinates the positions of Medea, Jason, the ship and other equipment being used for testing and sampling. The navigator has control of the ship while Jason is working and keeps the ship above Medea. Scientists sit behind the pilots and navigator and watch in anticipation as their experiments unfold before their eyes. Behind the scientists, observers keep a constant record on 4 DVDs and a computer that captures a still picture every two minutes. Additional still pictures can be taken on the computer at the scientist's request. There are actually 8 DVD recorders in the control booth. Two make copies for the scientists to review and two are for the Jason archives. Four actively record while the next 4 are being readied. In this way every second of the action is recorded.