1. Medea ready for deployment.

Medea

The deep sea vehicle Jason II is deployed and controlled using a 10,000 meter Kevlar fiber optic cable that carries 2800 volts of electricity to the seafloor to power the vehicle. The cable alone costs approximately $250,000 and for this expedition a brand new cable is being used.

During normal deployment, the cable runs from the ship to a large “weight” called Medea, and then from Medea to Jason on the seafloor. Thus, the primary purpose of Medea is to effectively absorb any changes in the cable’s tension because of the ship’s motion up and over waves when working at a research site. 

Because the cable is brand new, the Jason engineers, working together with the ship’s crew, unwound the cable today in preparation for the first Jason dives next week. This was done by stopping the ship and lowering Medea into the water, unwinding the cable in the process. The idea was to just let Medea spin in place as needed to relieve any built up torque in the new cable. 4300 meters of cable was unwound and the entire procedure took about 4 hours to complete.

When Jason is deployed for the first time on this expedition (July 16th target date) the cable should be ready to go.

2. Medea being lifted over the stern.

3. And down she goes with the cable!

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