''Jason Junior'', also called ''JJ'', was a small
remotely operated vehicle
A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV or just ROV) is a tethered underwater mobile device, commonly called ''underwater robot''.
Definition
This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the a ...
(ROV) designed and built by the Deep Submergence Laboratory at the
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering.
Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it ...
(WHOI). ''Jason Jr.'' was a prototype for a larger, more capable ROV named
''Jason'', which was being developed to complement the
''Argo'' unmanned undersea video camera sled.
''Jason Jr.'' was first used in the exploration of the wreck of the
RMS ''Titanic'' in 1986, during which it was attached to and controlled from aboard the
DSV ''Alvin'', a
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
manned deep-ocean research
submersible operated by WHOI. The ROV was connected to the submersible by a
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...
cable, and allowed scientists to explore and photograph areas of the
shipwreck that the submersible could not access. The ROV was deployed from a metal cage attached to the front of ''Alvin'', and controlled remotely by a pilot inside the submersible.
''Jason Jr.'' was lost at sea in late 1991, when a barge carrying it and other equipment to the
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...
sank in the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
during the Jason III expedition.
References
External links
Ships & Technology used during the Titanic Expeditions
{{WHOI-Ships
Robotic submarines