Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Robots are poised to revolutionize deep-sea restoration efforts, blurring the lines between science fiction and reality.

Robots are poised to revolutionize deep-sea restoration efforts, blurring the lines between science fiction and reality.

The historical record of the Hughes Glomar Explorer’s covert expedition, a half-century prior to the catastrophic OceanGate Titan incident? That’s a fascinating inquiry indeed.

My article is now out on why deep ocean robotics is challenging? In 1974, the CIA successfully executed a daring operation to recover a sunken submarine from a depth of approximately three miles underwater. Here’s a revised version:

In “Three Miles Below”, renowned author Harry Turtledove presents a particularly challenging premise: attempting to deliver an extraterrestrial spacecraft, which becomes the central plot of this gripping science fiction novel. It’s a fascinating parallel to the 1974 Hughes Glomar Explorer expedition in the vein of a Forrest Gump-like narrative. Despite occurring 50 years prior to the OceanGate Titan disaster, the identical obstacles persist for today’s underwater robots. The relevance of robotics science in this e-book is indeed up-to-date; however, its exploration of alien life is relatively sparse.

In 1974, the CIA dispatched a gargantuan, 3-mile-long robotic arm weighing an astonishing 6 million pounds to salvage a stranded Russian submarine. The often-told anecdote claims that Howard Hughes’ pursuit of manganese nodules through deep-sea mining inadvertently sparked widespread interest in the industry, prompting others to follow suit.

The Glomar Explorer’s operational success also stemmed from its innovative laptop management capabilities, as the vessel required precise control to maintain its position and synchronize with the submarine in challenging sea conditions.

The system features a 16-bit microprocessor running at a clock speed of 5 MHz, along with 32 KB of core memory provided by Honeywell’s computer systems. Consider that a latest-generation iPhone leverages a powerful 64-bit microprocessor, a swift 3GHz processor frequency, 6 gigabytes of high-performance RAM, and a dedicated graphics processing unit (GPU).

The renowned author, Harry Turtledove, deviates from the conventional science historical narrative by introducing an extraordinary twist: the CIA’s supposed recovery of the Soviet submarine is merely a smokescreen for their actual objective – salvaging the extraterrestrial spacecraft thought to have collided with the vessel.

A fascinating comparison of bygone eras in deep-sea robotics and computer systems, infused with wry wit and exacting detail, awaits readers in this thought-provoking sci-fi exploration spanning nearly four decades. This engaging article is a must-read for anyone interested in robotics and computer science.

For additional robotics science studying:

For additional scifi studying, try:


is a Raytheon Professor of Pc Science and Engineering at Texas A&M College and Vice-President of the not-for-profit Heart for Robotic-Assisted Search and Rescue

Robin Murphy
is a Raytheon Professor of Pc Science and Engineering at Texas A&M College and Vice-President of the not-for-profit Heart for Robotic-Assisted Search and Rescue

Related Articles

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest Articles