ROV update #1: I'm building an ROV
I first started planning to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) around two years ago, shortly after leaving grad school. Oceanography had scratched an itch for the adventure of exploration. Earth scientists travel to the inhospitable places. They sail across oceans and climb mountains. They go to Antarctica. And using probes, they also send their presence even further. Into the abyssal ocean, into volcanoes, even onto alien planets. I didn't want to lose that excitement, and designing and building a submersible ROV was a way of continuing that exploration without the need of wider logistics out financing. For over a year, this was purely an intention. Late in 2016, though I finally began to work on it seriously, although gradually. I have some limited familiarity in the process of designing hardware to penetrate inaccessible places. I was in a satellite design club in college. Designing a mission to search for life is a common ...