Germany's Lost U-Boat
The mission scenario is based on the Nova documentary Hitler’s Lost Sub, ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostsub/ ) and also on a book called Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson “The true adventure of two Americans who risked everything to solve one of the last mysteries of World War II.” ( http://www.robertkurson.com/book.html ) While the actual story took place in 70.11meters of water with extreme SCUBA divers, the event organizers changed a few things to make it fit more for an ROV Scenario. It would be great if each team got the Nova Video from the P.B.S. website and watch it to get the “flavor” of the mission or get the book which chronicles the story of the father and son team that explored the sub for years trying to identify it.
The mission scenario for this competition goes like this. In 2006, professional ROV developer John Jacobson, testing a video ROV, accidentally discovered a sunken German U-boat from World War II, lying undetected only 96.6 km off the New Jersey shore. The U.S. and Germany have no record of any German sub ever sunk in this location, yet there it lies, 914.4 meters down with unexploded torpedoes and the bodies of its crew still aboard. One year later you, (John Jacobson), and your ROV team have built an ROV to conduct a salvage and identification operation for history’s sake. The sunken sub is too deep for divers so ROV’s are the only solution. The amount of light at 914.4 meters is basically zero, so your ROV must also be equipped with lights. Based on video surveys from the video ROV and technical drawings of typical German Submarines you plan your mission. The goals are as follows:
1. Retrieve without detonating the two surviving armed torpedoes to the surface where they will be disposed of in a detonation chamber.
2. Retrieve any artifact that will help identify any crew member.
3. Locate the sonic pinger used to mark the location of the Sub, and verify its condition and decipher its coded message.
4. Retrieve the submarine’s military identification plaque to the identity of the submarine.
5. Measure the depth of the top of the blast opening that sank the sub.
6. Measure the temperature of the volcanic vent that the submarine landed on when it sank.
7. Place a commemorative plaque on the deck next to the blast opening.
Since the location of this event is in a desert, some accommodations have been made to help make this event interesting. Being that in June the day time temperatures could be in the 100’s, and the fact that the event is being held at an outdoor pool, the event will be held at night. This will allow the teams to operate their ROVs in lighting conditions that simulate 914.4 meters and will not subject teams to the heat of the southwest desert.