The Sum of Unique Parts

» Click on the images to learn more details about these components.Engineers took on a unique challenge when they began designing one of the world's longest and heaviest deep-sea sediment coring devices?weighing as much as a trailer truck and stretching three times as long. How could an instrument of such extreme weight and length be launched and recovered routinely and safely from the deck of a swaying ship, even in high seas? The answer is the development of a one-of-a-kind coring support system on board the research vessel Knorr with a variety of unique components to maintain control of the 150-foot corer. (Flash by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)