New York, 27 December 2024 - Global Oceans, a US-based 501(c)3 operating foundation has signed a Letter of Intent with  Orpheus Ocean, Inc. based in New Bedford, MA, to develop strategies for integrating Orpheus’ vehicle technologies in support of Global Oceans’ Innerspace Initiative. Orpheus Ocean is a new VC-funded ocean technology start up with an exclusive license to develop and deploy an autonomous full-ocean-depth vehicle platform originally designed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Global Oceans’ mission supports collaboration with technology-focused start-ups to develop and deploy new technologies that will expand deep sea research capacity and this partnership is part of Global Oceans’ effort to build a modular, user-flexible vehicle and instrument platform as a “system of systems” for deep sea discovery.

Innerspace is a newly launched initiative to host a deep sea research, exploration, training, and public outreach platform, jointly managed with the Center for Life in Extreme Environments (CLEE) at Portland State University, with participation from international collaborators and partnering institutions. Innerspace will explore important scientific questions about biodiversity and mechanisms of survival in extreme environments found in the deep sea, such as hydrothermal vent and hypersaline habitats, and will catalyze fresh thinking about the integration of new technologies to enable high-resolution imaging, environmental sensing, and omics-level analyses of organisms from the micro-to-nano-scale.

The goal of the Orpheus collaboration is several-fold: to integrate the Orpheus AUV platform as a forward-surveying solution for Global Oceans’ planned Innerspace 6000 OEVdeep sea robotic imaging and sampling ROV; to complement real-time observation and measurement capacity with sensors and tools mounted on Orpheus vehicles; and to expand exploration capacity for Innerspace projects beyond 6,000 meters to full ocean depth with Orpheus AUVs as stand-alone observation and sampling platforms.

Global Oceans’ CEO, Jim Costopulos, stated: “Our collaboration with Orpheus Ocean to customize and  deploy their evolving Orpheus full-ocean-depth AUV platform in support of the Innerspace project and our Innerspace 6000 OEV vehicle will create efficiencies for targeting deep sea habitats of interest and will extend observational capacity for our project scientists. We support partnering with new companies in the ocean startup ecosystem, to provide opportunities for deploying new tech and AI in real world applications.”

Orpheus Ocean’s CEO, Dr. Jake Russell, stated: “The mission of Global Oceans and the Innerspace Initiative – to answer key questions about deep ocean environments – is exactly the type of work Orpheus Ocean was founded to support. Bringing ultra scalable, autonomous systems to these extreme parts of the ocean will finally unlock the level of data collection needed for real scientific insights. We’re excited to be a partner on this groundbreaking effort.”

Contacts:

Jim Costopulos, Global Oceans, jcostopulos@global-oceans.org

Jake Russell, Orpheus Ocean, jake@orpheusocean.com