_-_La_Vilette_-_Paris_-_2003.JPG) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | Nautile |
| Commissioned | 1984 |
| In service | 1984 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Deep-submergence vehicle |
| Length | 8.0 m (26.2 ft) |
| Beam | 2.7 m (8.9 ft) |
| Draft | 3.81 m (12.5 ft) |
| Installed power | Electric motor |
| Speed | 1.5kn |
| Range | 7.5km |
| Endurance | 120h |
| Test depth | 6,000 m (20,000 ft) |
| Complement | 3 |
Nautile is a crewedsubmersible owned byIfremer, theFrench Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. Commissioned in 1984, the submersible can be operated at depths of up to 6 km (3.7 mi).[1]
Nautile is capable of housing three people. It has a length of 8 m, still imagingcameras, two colour video cameras, and a number of LED floodlights. It is fitted with two robotic arms to allow remote manipulation. This makes it easier to inspect, image, and gather materials from areas otherwise unaccesible to the vehicle.[2]Nautile can stay underwater for up to eight hours at a time. Six of those hours can include work on the sea floor.
Two ships can act as mothership toNautile:Pourquoi Pas? andAtalante. In its early days,Nautile was launched fromRVNadir.[1]
Without the need for a physical link to support its operation, the submersible can be readily deployed in a variety of environments. It's most commonly used to survey specific areas, collect samples, and assist in the investigation and recovery of wrecks.[1]
The vessel has been used to examine the wrecks of theRMSTitanic andMVPrestige, and to search for the black boxes fromAir France Flight 447[3]
During the inspection of theTitanic, it used a small manipulator arm known as "ROBIN" to retrieve numerous artifacts.[4] Equipped withCCD type cameras, ROBIN is only 60 x 50 x 50 cm large and weighs 130 kg. In August 1987, a 54-days expedition collected new images, videos, and objects from the wreck.
Nautile was used to trainIndianAquanauts under a diplomatic arrangement as a pre-cursor to India's development ofMatsya-6000.[5]
Media related toNautile (submarine, 1984) at Wikimedia Commons
