Development of a borehole deployable remotely operated vehicle for investigation of sub-ice aquatic environments

Abstract

Investigation of sub-ice aquatic environments on Earth requires highly specialized methods. While ice offers a convenient stable platform for deployment of remotely operated vehicles, tethered vehicles with traditional cuboid form-factors require large diameter holes through the ice that would necessitate impractical logistics for ice-drilling support. Access beneath the front of an ice shelf edge is possible with traditional ship deployed underwater vehicles, however the operational range is generally limited, and exploring the water column towards the grounding zone of larger ice shelves involves distances of hundreds of kilometers, which is beyond the effective range of current autonomous or tethered systems. Many such sub-ice environments are found on and around the continent of Antarctica but only a handful of underwater vehicles have been successfully used in Antarctica to date, which has limited the extent of scientific investigation in these restricted environments. Borehole vehicles have been successfully demonstrated in the past, and we describe here a significant improvement on their past depth and sensorial capability.