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Titanic Team Knuckles Down for 'Jason II'
01 Sep 2002
The team of engineers and scientists who built the miniature remote-controlled submarine Jason Junior used in the investigation of the wreck of the Titanic has developed an advanced new ROV that will be deployed by a specially adapted Effer crane provided by the UK's European Crane Services (ECS).
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) based in Massachusetts USA has now developed the Jason II ROV, designed for deep-sea exploration and research. The Jason Junior was used by Dr Robert Ballard of the WHOI in 1986 to explore and photograph the wreck of the Titanic where she rested 2.5 miles down on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean.
The new Jason II ROV will carry extra instrumentation and is capable of going even deeper and performing more complex operations than its predecessor.
Since the Jason II weighs considerably more than Jason Junior, the WHOI are also taking the opportunity of replacing their old crane with a more powerful and manoeuvrable Effer 44000 knuckle boom crane.
The crane will be used to launch and retrieve WHOI's larger new sub-sea vehicle.
The knuckle boom design of the crane was chosen because of its special structure, which combines lightweight compactness with high performance.
Its 16m articulated telescopic boom has particularly precise load handling characteristics, a big advantage when lifting expensive and delicate items of technical equipment like the ROV.
Before being fitted, ECS will make extra modifications to the Effer 44000 to better meet the special operational needs of Jason II.
MJ Information No: 17455
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