ROPOS’ first expedition of the year was in support of L3 MariPro onboard the C/S Dependable. The primary objective of this expedition was for ROPOS to assist in the recovery and repair of a Primary Science Node that will be used by the Regional Scale Nodes program.

In order to mobilize on the C/S Dependable, the ROPOS team designed a docking head that allows ROPOS to be launched from the vessel’s A-frame while retaining the vehicle’s through-frame lift rating. Operating from such a large cable ship certainly gave us a different perspective on ROPOS’ dimensions; hanging from its docking head on a towering A-frame, ROPOS has rarely looked so small.

While ROPOS may have looked small, it was the perfect tool for the job and ROPOS and its team’s reputation for efficiency and capability held true as they accomplished all of the objectives, many requiring delicate dual manipulator operations, successfully and well within schedule.

It was a pleasure to work with the L3 MariPro group and we hope that these dives assist our friends at the Regional Scale Nodes (RSN) program. We look forward to joining RSN on VISIONS’14 for 83 busy days of secondary infrastructure deployments this summer.