This SBIR Phase-I project combines the aerospace expertise of Jackson and Tull (J&T) in satellite communications and advanced data systems technology with the oceanographic expertise of Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to design a Station-Keeping, Ocean Observing Terminus (SKOOTER) buoy. SKOOTER features an end-to-end command and data link between the oceanographic researcher's desktop computer and the remotely programmable, relocatable buoy. Wind- and solar-energy power both instrumentation and the propulsion system which SKOOTER uses to keep station. Remote programming allows its data-collection program to be altered in response to changing conditions; mobility and GPS for location information allows the SKOOTER to be programmed to move to new observing stations. The design will build on innovations developed by the J&T/WHOI team for its Modular Offshore Data Acquisition System, a 1995 NASA STTR project, and from its Nomadic Exploration Marine Observatory (NEMO), a 1996 NASA SBIR project, including an autonomous data system and two-way satellite communication system. The output of the Phase-I effort will be a conceptual design along with a numerical model that describes the horizontal motion of SKOOTER in response to wind, waves, and current, thus defining its practical regions of use.
