WASHINGTON — A second try is about to get underway at sending a little yellow submarine gliding across the Atlantic Ocean to collect scientific data from beneath the waves.
“The launching is tremendously exciting because there is just so much that we don’t really know about what happens in the oceans,” said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“The capacity to fly through the ocean, across the Atlantic, taking data about temperature, salinity and other properties of the water gives us keen insight into what’s happening down there,” she said.
The first glider was lost last year before it completed its trip. The second, improved version has been put together by the same team at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. If conditions cooperate, the launch is set for Wednesday — Earth Day.
The glider has been improved with new software, a new surface that scientists hope will discourage marine organisms from attaching to it, and the ability to dive as much as 660 feet down, farther than the first version. It has been reinforced to resist bites from creatures such as sharks.
The first glider was lost after it developed a leak, possibly from a bite.
Like its predecessor, the new glider (yellow, as before) has been named Scarlet Knight after the Rutgers school mascot.
