BloombergBusinessweek |SoonerThanYouThink June 10, 2019A small swarm of drone subs that rapidly found two missing wrecks
may offer solutions to other mysteries of the deepS C A N N I NG
L
ast November a small seabed-exploration com-
pany out of Houston called Ocean Infinity made
the discovery of a lifetime—or so it seemed, until it
made another three months later. First, Ocean Infinity
successfully located the remains of the San Juan, an
Argentine navy sub that had vanished while on patrol.
Then it found the wreck of the Stellar Daisy, a South
Korean bulk ore carrier. Both vessels had been missing
for more than a year, which often means a wreck won’t
ever be found. The two-year-old company’s secret was
teamwork: a set of eight drone subs working in tandem
to scan a much larger area in record time.
These successes could be part of a broader shift in
how humanity understands the sea. We know far more
about the surface of Mars than we do about the bot-
tom of the ocean, but seabed-scanning technology isgrowingsophisticatedenoughtorendertheinkydepths
muchmoretransparent.Seabed2030, a joint project
of two nonprofits, aims to map the entire ocean floor
by its namesake year. Key to that effort is Kongsberg
Maritime AS, the Norwegian company that made Ocean
Infinity’s subs.
Bjorn Jalving, senior vice president of Kongsberg’s
subsea division, says the Hugin, its flagship drone, is a
testamenttoadvancesin roboticstrengthandstamina.
Huginscandiveasdeepas20,000feetandstayunder-
waterfor 72 hoursata stretch.Costing$5millionto
$10million apiece depending on the onboard instru-
ments they have and the depths they can handle, the
drones are hardy enough, Jalving says, that “you let
them out in the ocean, and you know that they’ll come
back.” They’re also packed with sensors, includingJalving with Hugin
drones, which have
helped almost triple
the area of surveyed
seabeds since 2017The drones can dive as
deep as 20,000 feet
and stay underwater
for up to 72 hours54