Prototype submersible produces more power than it consumes

Engineers have come up with a unique solution to the problem of powering underwater robotic vehicles -- tapping the unlimited energy difference between the ocean's cold spots and its more temperate regions.

A prototype submersible southwest of Hawaii has been chugging away for more than three months collecting data about ocean temperature, pressure and salinity, producing more power than it consumes.

"Having a long-duration underwater vehicle has been a dream for a long long," oceanographer Li Chao, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News.

SourceEngineers have come up with a unique solution to the problem of powering underwater robotic vehicles -- tapping the unlimited energy difference between the ocean's cold spots and its more temperate regions.

A prototype submersible southwest of Hawaii has been chugging away for more than three months collecting data about ocean temperature, pressure and salinity, producing more power than it consumes.

"Having a long-duration underwater vehicle has been a dream for a long long," oceanographer Li Chao, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told Discovery News.

Source