The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason is a robotic vehicle to be used for the first time on the UW-OOI-NSF VISIONS'16 expedition to recover and reinstall (cycle) much of the Secondary Infrastructure (e.g., instruments, junction boxes). For this expedition Jason will work at water depths of 80 m to 2900 m. The vehicle is tethered to the R/V Sikuliaq by a fiber-optic cable that allows real-time communication to and from the ship and the ROV, as well as providing power to the ROV.
Over this past year, Jason has been modified to meet special requirements needed to work on the Cabled Array – these include heavy lift capabilities and the ability to latch into the junction boxes and Shallow Profiler Mooring components for recovery and reinstallation. As part of this modification, Jason is now a 1-part vehicle without the need for Medea. Instead floats are used to dampen wave action.