4 ms·

Sounds like (hah) this is a job for cheap sea drones. Spread them out and have them listen and triangulate the location, and then go there with a human team. h

by 1970-01-01 4mo ago

Sounds like (hah) this is a job for cheap sea drones. Spread them out and have them listen and triangulate the location, and then go there with a human team. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_surface_vehicle#Oceanography,_hydrography_and_environmental_monitoring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_surface_vehicle#Ocean...

caycep 4mo ago
although, just because we can, is it something we should?
- booi 4mo ago
  yah what happened to leaving it the f alone?
- zamadatix 4mo ago
  It'd be marine animal research as much as most other - I guess the answer is just the same as how much priority one normally ties to that for one's given reasoning.
Shalomboy 4mo ago
The cool thing about cheap sea drones is that they are still incredibly expensive to operate. Like, the only cost center they remove is the crew which is negligible compared to fuel, transport, and equipment.
- dredmorbius 4mo ago
  The ones 1970-01-01 mentions are sail-driven and solar-powered. They can operate autonomously over wide-ranging areas for years. Saildrone have produced at least 24 vessels: 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, four in the Baltic, and possibly others. There's a tender of $37 million with the US Coast Guard, and a market of $412 million as of 2024. This suggests a unit price on the order of about $10,000, which is downright cheap for any seaworthy craft. "Exclusive: Saildrone Scores $37M BPA with USCG" <https://www.tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-saildrone-scores-37m-bpa-with-uscg/ https://www.tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-saildrone-scores-3...> "Saildrone Surveyor USV Market Research Report 2033" (2024) <https://growthmarketreports.com/report/saildrone-surveyor-usv-market https://growthmarketreports.com/report/saildrone-surveyor-us...> My estimate may well be low. Ukraine's SeaBaby drone boats are reported to cost ~$250,000: "Sea drones: What are they and how much do they cost?" (2023) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66373052 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66373052>
dredmorbius 4mo ago
There's at least one company, Saildrone, operating out of Alameda, CA (SF Bay Area and one endpoint of the famed Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958407>), which might be suited to that. Its 23--65-foot sail-driven, solar-powered drones are tasked with anti-submarine warfare (most likely largely acoustic detection, so well-suited to cetacean observation, which is how whalesong was discovered in the first place), operate autonomously, over wide-ranging areas of ocean, for long periods. They're mentioned in your link, some additional references: <https://www.saildrone.com/ https://www.saildrone.com/> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saildrone_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saildrone_(company)> Earlier HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16242380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16242380> (2018, 5 comments). I've mentioned the firm a few times: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adredmorbius%20saildrone&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...>
deleted 4mo ago
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caycep 4mo ago

although, just because we can, is it something we should?

booi 4mo ago
yah what happened to leaving it the f alone?
zamadatix 4mo ago
It'd be marine animal research as much as most other - I guess the answer is just the same as how much priority one normally ties to that for one's given reasoning.

Shalomboy 4mo ago

The cool thing about cheap sea drones is that they are still incredibly expensive to operate. Like, the only cost center they remove is the crew which is negligible compared to fuel, transport, and equipment.

dredmorbius 4mo ago
The ones 1970-01-01 mentions are sail-driven and solar-powered. They can operate autonomously over wide-ranging areas for years. Saildrone have produced at least 24 vessels: 20 in the Gulf of Mexico, four in the Baltic, and possibly others. There's a tender of $37 million with the US Coast Guard, and a market of $412 million as of 2024. This suggests a unit price on the order of about $10,000, which is downright cheap for any seaworthy craft. "Exclusive: Saildrone Scores $37M BPA with USCG" <https://www.tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-saildrone-scores-37m-bpa-with-uscg/ https://www.tectonicdefense.com/exclusive-saildrone-scores-3...> "Saildrone Surveyor USV Market Research Report 2033" (2024) <https://growthmarketreports.com/report/saildrone-surveyor-usv-market https://growthmarketreports.com/report/saildrone-surveyor-us...> My estimate may well be low. Ukraine's SeaBaby drone boats are reported to cost ~$250,000: "Sea drones: What are they and how much do they cost?" (2023) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66373052 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66373052>

dredmorbius 4mo ago

There's at least one company, Saildrone, operating out of Alameda, CA (SF Bay Area and one endpoint of the famed Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9958407>), which might be suited to that. Its 23--65-foot sail-driven, solar-powered drones are tasked with anti-submarine warfare (most likely largely acoustic detection, so well-suited to cetacean observation, which is how whalesong was discovered in the first place), operate autonomously, over wide-ranging areas of ocean, for long periods. They're mentioned in your link, some additional references: <https://www.saildrone.com/ https://www.saildrone.com/> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saildrone_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saildrone_(company)> Earlier HN discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16242380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16242380> (2018, 5 comments). I've mentioned the firm a few times: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adredmorbius%20saildrone&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...>

deleted 4mo ago

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