March 2023

New Frontiers in Ocean Exploration: The Ocean Exploration Trust 2022 Field Season

ROV Argus is a deep-tow system capable of diving to

6,000 meters. Argus is mainly used in tandem with ROV

Hercules, hovering several meters above in order to provide

a bird’s-eye view of Hercules working on the seafloor. Argus

is also capable of operating as a stand-alone system for

large-scale deepwater surveys.

GENERAL

DEPTH CAPABILITY. 6,000 meters (19,685 feet),

currently limited to 4,000 meters (13,123 feet)

CABLE. 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) of 1.73 centimeter

(0.681 inch) diameter electro-optic Rochester cable,

3x #11 conductors, 4x SM fibers SIZE. 3.8 meters long ×

1.2 meters wide × 1.3 meters high (12.5 feet long ×

3.9 feet wide × 4.3 feet tall)

WEIGHT. 2,100 kilograms (4,700 pounds) in air,

1,360 kilograms (3,000 pounds) in water

MAXIMUM TRANSIT SPEED. 2 knots

ASCENT/DESCENT RATE. 30 meters/minute

(98 feet/minute)

PROPULSION. Two Tecnadyne Model 1020 thrusters

for heading control

IMAGING & LIGHTING

CAMERAS

• One Insite Pacific Zeus Plus high-definition camera with

Ikegami HDL-45A head and Fujinon HA 10 × 5.2 lens,

1080i SMPTE 292M output format, 2 megapixel still

image capable on tilt platform

• Three utility cameras (fixed mounted) 480 line

NTSC format

• One DeepSea Power & Light Wide-i SeaCam, downward

looking standard definition camera (fixed mounted)

LIGHTING

• Three CathX Aphos 16 LED lampheads,

28,000 lumens each

• Two DeepSea Power & Light 250 Watt

incandescent lights

VEHICLE SENSORS & NAVIGATION

SYSTEM. NavEst integrated navigation system solution

USBL NAVIGATION. Sonardyne Ranger 2

PRIMARY HEADING. Crossbow high-resolution magnetic

motion and attitude sensor

PRESSURE SENSOR. Paroscientific Digiquartz 8CB series

ALTIMETER. Benthos PSA-916

FORWARD-LOOKING SONAR. Mesotech 1071,

300 kilohertz, 0.5–100 meter (1.6–328.1 feet) range

SUB-BOTTOM PROFILING SONAR. TriTech SeaKing

Parametric Sub-bottom Profiler (10–30 kilohertz)

SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT SUPPORT

POWER. 110 volt 60 hertz AC, 24 VDC and

12 VDC power options

DIGITAL DATA CHANNELS. Ethernet

REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE (TOWSLED) ARGUS