Robots Help With Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Robots Help With Deepwater Horizon Disaster: "

The image above, from the US Coast Guard's flickr
stream, shows an ROV attempting to activate the Deepwater
Horizon
Blowout Preventer (BOP). The attempt failed and the massive Deepwater
Horizon oil spill continues, threatening to become one of the
biggest environmental disasters of all time. Efforts to stop the spill
now include at
least 10 underwater
robots (in addition to 200 manned sea vessels). US Coast Guard ROVs
located two of the major leaks. There
have been unsuccessful attempts by six different ROVs
to close the BOP. Other
underwater robots are monitoring the disaster site, locating
portions of the spill and dispensing subsea oil dispersents. BP
has rented most of the ROVs they're using but ExxonMobil has donated
the use of one underwater robot plus a support vessel. ROVs working
on one of the three major leaks today successfully installed a half-ton
valve on the broken pipe and were
able to shut it off. Next up for the robots is to assist with the
lowering of a 100 ton containment dome over the disaster site to contain
the spilling oil. This type of operation has never been attempted at a
depth of 5,000 feet. If the containment dome doesn't work,
scientists
warn, the spill may get worse fast. Dr. Robert
H. Weisberg of the University of South Florida says,

It's very likely that at some point oil will be entrained in
the Loop Current. Once entrainment happens, the speed of the Loop
Current could go from that point to the Dry Tortugas in a week, to Cape
Hatteras in another two weeks.
Getting into the Loop Current may take some time. But once in the Loop
Current, the oil will move rather quickly.

If that happens the oil will threaten environments along the Gulf
coast, the Florida
Keys, and Atlantic Seaboard. Particulate pollution from burn offs and
VOCs outgassing from the massive slick could threaten human health as
well. USF is
sending a special robotic sensor platform called the Weatherbird II
into the spill zone to monitor how zooplankton are impacted by the cloud
of toxic water. Tiny oil droplets harmless to larger animals can kill
zooplankton, which are a key element in the undersea food chain.
For up to date information on the disaster see the NOAA photo
stream, NASA
satellite images (and NASA MODIS
rapid response sat images), and the EPA's live air quality monitoring
network.

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