Survey ship at sea 22 days, with no crew

This crewless ship sailed for 22 days

Location: Off the coast of England

surveying the seabed of the mid-Atlantic Ridge

The 39-foot-long Maxlimer

was controlled around the clock

by satellite communications

from its developers remotely

(SOUNDBITE) (English) JAMIE McMICHAEL-PHILLIPS, SEABED 2030 SAYING:

“The uncrewed vessel, as you can see behind me, is operating in Plymouth Sound yet it is being controlled in an ops room based in Essex, so the other side of the United Kingdom. Absolutely amazing.”

The vessel has mapped over

386 square miles of ocean floor

since late July

(SOUNDBITE) (English) SEA-KIT DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY, PETER WALKER, SAYING: “To have this technology and to get a picture of what’s under the sea is amazing and to do it uncrewed, it’s leading on to a much greener world where we don’t have to risk seafarers' lives. We can still keep seafarers in their job but just have them on the shoreside and this project completely proved that is totally possible.”