Paul Duncan and Chris Barnard have been at Ifremer this week to have the latest training on our TECHSAS logging system.

They have also seen a new online system called gforge which is used to submit bugs, keep a record of the various modules in use on each ship and can be used as a forum to keep in touch with other Techsas users and developers.

They have also toured around the French research vessel Thalassa, which was in port during their visit. Thalassa is primarily used for fisheries research, so one of their main echo sounders is a multi-frequency fish-finding echo sounder, similar to our EK-60 on RRS James Cook. They have looked at the equipment used to synchronise the sonar sources, although the person that knows all about it was on holiday. Another item of interest has been sat-comms systems employed by Thalassa, Atalante and the other Ifremer ships.

Discovery Ship to Shore Networking

RRS Discovery online communications

NMF have been looking for a means of providing the connectivity to online services we enjoy on the James Cook onboard the Discovery.

A Vsat system would have been the preferred option however a dome of this size cannot be fitted to Discovery without substantial modifications to the wheelhouse structure. The costs of such a modification cannot be justified given the remaining lifetime of Discovery.

It initially appeared that the BGAN inmarsat based coms system used in remote land locations was to be marinised. This would have given a pay to use system that could have been installed very inexpensively with a small dish. Unfortunately the system providers pulled out of this product development early last year.

The next promising development was connectivity via the Iridium satellite network. This promised much the same connectivity as BGAN i.e. a low cost metered system. Trials of the hardware have been progressing during the second half of 2008 mostly in the US. These trials have currently not proven to be successful and no commercial system is imminent.

An alternative satellite system has been available from NSSL for some time called cruise IP. It offers a good quality broadband service but has been considered unsuitable due to lack of coverage in the North Atlantic.
Brochure
http://www.satcom-solutions.com/main/productpages/brochures/Cruise-IP%20Brochure%20Oct%202008%20-%20LowRes.pdf
Coverage map
http://www.satcom-solutions.com/main/productpages/brochures/Cruise-IP%20Coverage%20Map%20041208%20Low-Res.pdf
North Atlantic coverage will change dramatically following the launch of a further satellite in February 2009. This will provide coverage north through to Iceland and south to Tenerife moving this solution from one that would only have provided coverage for a fraction of the Discovery program to one that will provide coverage for over 80% of its planned use.

Watch this space for updates.