January 5, 2008

My name is D'Juan DeLaine and I am in eighth grade at Ferndale Middle School, Ferndale, Mich.  I would like a picture of the robot with the size so that I can understand how big the robot is. 

We also want to know how much this expedition costs.

Dear D’Juan:

Thanks for sending in a question! You can find a picture of Puma, one of our autonomous underwater vehicles, in the slideshow for 3 January 2008. Apart from the sensors on them, the two are identical. In terms of size, the vehicles are 2.0 meters (6.6 feet) long and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) high.

This research program involves teams for three different institutions: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Johns Hopkins University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It has been underway since 2004 and will end after this cruise. The total budget (excluding the cost of the ship) is about $2.8 million. The cost to use the R/V Knorr is between $25,000 to $30,000 a day.

Hope you and your classmates will send more questions to Dive and Discover!

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