Research Paper blogging:Okay, the final stretch! You know the drill:- Label with your name and #Research- Cite your source as best you can.Away!
A robot from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's research center has begun operating in the Gulf of Mexico to assist in the oil spill. The submarine robot is named the Dorado. It's job is to help analyze the extent of the spill by monitoring the undersea currents and it's ability to carry the dense oil. It is also collecting samples of marine life to help scientist determine the extent of damage the spill has on the marine life. The Dorado has artificial intelligence software aboard to help decide where to seek and what to sample. It can dive to 5,000 feet. Pretty cool stuff from Monterey.
SF Chronicle
David Perlman
5/29/10
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great post Cal. It is great that previous years of experimenting, and engineering can help out in this mess. Maybe the 10 "gulpers" that it has can help clean out a lot of the regions around the BP platform site. Even if the "gulpers" don't have too much of an effect on the cleaning process, this machine will definitely show the world the true reality of this spill.
ReplyDeleteadding to my post above, How do you think this machine will help with the issue?
ReplyDeleteAlthough the robot will be able to collect data on the extent of the spill, do you think that this will help with informing our community in knowing how terrible oil spills or just help scientists understand how to effectively deal with the spill?
ReplyDeleteWell to answer your question Marjory, the problem of the oil spill is a problem of trial and error. We would find information, and attempt to use it effectively, and then that would result in either a success or failure. So if we are building a Unmanned submarine that can collect data on the oil spill, then this must be a step towards fixing oil spills in the future. Any data is good data.
ReplyDeleteGood point Austin. Like you said, it is a problem of trial and error, and it is surely going to take months to fix. Why not get as much as we can out of this mistake. Hopefully other oil companies learn from BP's mistakes, and fix their equipment using technology that BP lacked in order to prevent this from ever happening again. The ideal thing would be for other ocean platforms to completely shut down, but this is not realistic.
ReplyDeleteWell just to play the other side, but what if it is reasonable to shut down these offshore drilling platforms? Because if we are smart enough to build these sophisticated platforms, then why aren't we focusing on the new energy sources? We depend on oil for too many resources, and I fear that if we do not change our methods, then we might as well be giving up on the earth. Fossil fuels are limited, but energy sources from the sun, wind, and water are unlimited.
ReplyDeleteIn the long run these non Fossil fuel sources that you mentioned would benefit the earth more, but the fossil fuels are accepted more because they are owned by very big and powerful companies. Fossil fuels have really high calorific values, meaning that they make high amounts of usable energy, and that is another good reason for using them.
ReplyDeleteCalorific values merely indicate how much energy was released by something, but it doesn't indicate usable energy. Furthermore, its not simply that they are owned by big companies, but that they are also backed by the united states government as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is just another desperation attempt to get more fossil fuels so that we can continue polluting the planet. Sooner or later we are going to have more accidents like this, or we will run out of fossil fuels, and we are going to have to pay for it. It may not be under our generation, but it will not be very far away.
ReplyDeletemark if we can't use fossil fuels, what should we use? nuclear energy seems like a viable option, but do you think the world's population is willing to spend hundreds of trillions of dollars (that's just my guess) in order to rebuild everything that runs on fossil fuels to make it powerable by some other energy source? it's true that we need to start finding ways to lay of the fossil fuels, but in my opinion, it is going to have to be a long, slow change that we undergo through multiple generations.
ReplyDeleteBiofuels are also a good source of fuel. They come from biomasses, and have been used to power transportation/vehicles. However, even biofuels have environmental impacts; look into the food vs fuel debate for more information on this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_06/b4020093.htm