Nautile
Encyclopedia
The Nautile is a manned submersible
owned by Ifremer
, the French
Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Commissioned in 1984, the submersible can be operated at depths of up to 6 km (3.7 mi).
The Nautile is a miniature submarine, based on the bathyscaphe
design, and capable of housing just three people. It has a length of 8 m, still imaging camera
s, two colour video cameras, and a number of flood lights. It is fitted with two robotic arms to allow remote manipulation. The nautile can stay under water for up to eight hours at a time.
The vessel has been used to examine the wreck of the RMS Titanic and in the search for the flight data recorder
and cockpit voice recorder
from the ill-fated Air France Flight 447
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
owned by Ifremer
Ifremer
Ifremer, standing for French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea is an oceanographic institution in France.- Scope of works :...
, the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Commissioned in 1984, the submersible can be operated at depths of up to 6 km (3.7 mi).
The Nautile is a miniature submarine, based on the bathyscaphe
Bathyscaphe
A bathyscaphe is a free-diving self-propelled deep-sea submersible, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere, but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable, as in the classic bathysphere design....
design, and capable of housing just three people. It has a length of 8 m, still imaging camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s, two colour video cameras, and a number of flood lights. It is fitted with two robotic arms to allow remote manipulation. The nautile can stay under water for up to eight hours at a time.
The vessel has been used to examine the wreck of the RMS Titanic and in the search for the flight data recorder
Flight data recorder
A flight data recorder is an electronic device employed to record any instructions sent to any electronic systems on an aircraft. It is a device used to record specific aircraft performance parameters...
and cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
from the ill-fated Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled airline flight from Rio de Janeiro-Galeão to Paris-Roissy involving an Airbus A330-200 aircraft that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009, killing all 216 passengers and 12 aircrew. The investigation is still ongoing, and the cause of the...
External links and references
- Nautile — specification from IfremerIfremerIfremer, standing for French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea is an oceanographic institution in France.- Scope of works :...
website - Nautile: miniature submarine — BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
news article - Submarine to examine sunken oil tanker — New ScientistNew ScientistNew Scientist is a weekly non-peer-reviewed English-language international science magazine, which since 1996 has also run a website, covering recent developments in science and technology for a general audience. Founded in 1956, it is published by Reed Business Information Ltd, a subsidiary of...
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