OCEAN
WE EXPLORE OCEAN WORLDS TO SUPPORT THE BLUE ECONOMY AND SAVE EARTH'S OCEANS
InVADER is NASA's most capable deep-sea scientific observatory to date. NASA, NOAA, and the NSF will use InVADER’s remote Raman and fluorescence laser spectroscopic capabilities to study hydrothermal vent systems 1500m below the surface of the ocean for mineralogical and biological analysis. The goals of this mission are to understand the origin of life on Earth and develop new capabilities to find life in the oceans of Europa, Enceledus, and Titan.
Credit: Ocean Exploration Trust, NOAA 2023
ARIEL mounts to AUVs, ROVs and other exploration vehicles and uses spectroscopy to characterize both mineral deposits on the seafloor and nearby biological communities faster and more precisely than how it's done today, supporting a clean energy transition while preserving the deep marine biosphere.
This breakthrough laser sensing technology is being developed by Impossible for BOEM and NASA and will one day help to unlock the blue economy in a sustainable, preservation-focused way.
VIPER is a co-located, multi-spectral, laser sensing instrument that can perform point scans and 2.5D mapping of the elemental, mineralogical, and biological composition of a sample. It brings, for the first time, robotic laboratories to the site of seafloor exploration to identify and quantify the location, size, and nature of mineral deposits and biological communities.
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VIPER utilizes Impossible Sensing's space exploration technologies, originally developed for NASA, to support the global shift to clean energy without disrupting deep-sea diversity. It represents the vessel-side component of our sea floor exploration portfolio, complementing ARIEL