Engineers at Indian Arm, B.C., troubleshoot Explorer's communications link to reduce the risk of the robot failing to find its way home after mapping the Arctic in spring.PAUL_handleError, google_render_ad);
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Video: Canada's Yellow Submarine
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By Paul Watson Arctic-Aboriginal Affairs
INDIAN ARM, B.C.–Through a hole cut in the High Arctic ice, Canada's latest pioneer will dive to lightless depths to fathom a mountainous undersea world unseen by human eyes.
Shaped like a six-metre-long torpedo, Explorer will creep through the darkness at the speed of a briskly paddled canoe, under pressure so powerful it would crush a car into a block of steel scrap.
In March, a small team of Canadian government and industry experts plans to launch the autonomous unmanned vehicle (AUV) from an ice camp north of Borden Island, in the eastern Arctic, more than 4,100 kilometres northwest of Toronto.
The yellow craft will be on a critical mission to map the sea floor, at a depth of some five kilometres, as Canada rushes to compile evidence supporting its claim to a vast northern territory before a 2013 deadline.
For close to four days at a time, Explorer will be prowling like a lone shark, a multi-million-dollar trailblazer on a perilous voyage with no one to watch its steel-hulled back.
If the robot runs into trouble – like a massive seamount rising up into the darkness, turbulent currents or a curious sea creature – it won't be able to call for help from humans high above on shifting ice. Explorer will have to think for itself.
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