Press Release 09-118 The Abyss: Deepest Part of the Oceans No
Longer Hidden Nereus is first undersea vehicle to enable routine
scientific investigation of ocean depths worldwide June 2, 2009
The Abyss is a dark, deep place, but it's no longer hidden. At
least when Nereus is on the scene. Nereus is a new type of deep-
sea robotic vehicle, called a hybrid remotely operated vehicle
(HROV). Nereus dove to 10,902 meters (6.8 miles) on May 31,
2009, in the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench in the
western Pacific Ocean, reports a team of engineers and
scientists aboard the research vessel Kilo Moana. The dive makes
Nereus the world's deepest-diving vehicle, and the first vehicle
to explore the Mariana Trench since 1998. "Much of the ocean's
depths remain unexplored," said Julie Morris, director of the
National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences,
which funded the project. "Ocean scientists now have a unique
tool to gather images, data and samples from everywhere in the
oceans, rather than those