This is one of those occurrences that seems fit for the movies however, it is very real life. Monday night started an epic production to remove this massive ship from the shores where it has been beached for the last several months. Read the following article regarding this extraordinary situation and the process planned to remove the ship from the sea. Check out the pictures - they are amazing! What technology is used in this process? Think deeper than what meets the eye - no pun intended :)
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/europe/italy-costa-concordia-salvage/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
The technology that is used is obviously the robotic submarines that were used to explore under the water. Also the mobile platform that was set up for workers to raise the ship from, as well as any diving equipment that would have been used by men and women to rig the cabling to the ship itself. There are also the large ballast tanks that were used as counterweights that allowed the ship to right itself once it had reached a certain degree of pitch in the water. It allowed the vessel to carry itself under its own momentum.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the ships that will be pulling away the Costa, the tug liners that attach themselves with cabling and eventually the larger ships to pull the cruise liner back to port in Italy. Many of those ships are run on a state of the art turbine engine system to allow for faster speeds and more reliable engines than standard diesels.
What has happened to Costa Concordia would not have been as easy as it was for wokers to fix without the technology we have today. Simple pulleys would have not done the trick to getting this 14000 ton ship back to sailing ready. Engineers used multiple types of technology to evaluate and get this ship fixed. First of all a computer was used to make a diagram of the ship so engineers could evaluate and see what their next move would be. Also, to evaluate what was going on robotic submarines were used that went under to see how they could get it upright without further damage. To raise the ship a platform was used to stand it up gradually with the help of ballast tanks on the top side to fill up with water and gradually bring it to standing position. What this rescue team did was amazing. This is a tragedy but the fixing of the ship was an amazing thing, without the technology we have today this would have been a much longer process.
ReplyDeleteIn the article it states that the engineers use a robotic type of submarine that they can control and is equipped with surveillance cameras will survey the damaged side of the ship and create models needed in planning for the next phase of operations. I would also say the pulleys would be considered as technology because it would have to be powered by extreme forces for help lift a 114000 ton ship. Oh! we cant forget about the technology like; cameras, video recorders, and ect., that the scuba divers might have used in there experience when they first approached and searched the ship.
ReplyDeleteThe first step was the pulleys that uprighted the ship to make any sort of salvage possible. The big tanks that were used as counterweights was icing on the cake to help the ship completely upright itself. The robotic submarines that are going to be used to check out everything under water that is still on the ship. There is also a rig machine that is being set under water to catch any kind of spill from the toxins that remain on board the liner. There is a significant amount of rotting food, chemicals as well as two missing bodies still aboard the cruiser. They still need to locate these bodies before moving forward with the operation. These robotic submarines are going to be very key in the operation. All these things are making it possible to clean the liner and salvage as much as they can.
ReplyDeleteI can't even begin to imagine the extent of the technology used to salvage Costa Concordia. A massive network of pulleys and cables allowed them to heave the massive ship upright. Before the team could even begin to think of salvaging the ship, they had to create models of the ship in order to plan for the big event. They also had to go through the entire ship and its surroundings for environmental reasons, which took extensive man hours and technology. This operation required many aspects of technology. It took 19 hours to turn it upright, or to parbuckle, but it took a lot longer to plan the event. It was important to parbuckle the ship because if these noxious chemicals started leaking out it would be a hazard for the marine environment.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few technological techniques used to help get the ship level in the water. first off, the crew had to come with a plan with the rigs and cables so the ship could be flipped upright. Another would be the tanks that where used to counterweight the ship upright. The most fascinating strategy that they came up to me was using the robotic submarines to go under water and look at all the damage that was, it also tells them what steps would need to be taken to fix the wrecked side of the ship. lastly, the ship is sitting on some sort of platform and will be sitting on it for a year while the ship is being fix. The structure of the platform was also processed through technology.
ReplyDeleteThe event to upright a ship of Costa Concordia's size is an amazing feat. If this were to happen twenty or even ten years ago we are unable to do this and that shows how much our technology has advanced. Technology has advanced to a state where we use robotic submarines to take pictures and we then take it back to the lab to scale the picture to a larger size. Also the pulleys that were used in this process are very much different from the pulleys that were used to make the great pyramids in Egypt. Ten years ago we just blow up the ship and attempt to gather all the remains, what these men and women have done is an extraordinary to upright a ship of the size with a pulley system and large tanks. The technology that was used in this process shows how much we have advanced as people.
ReplyDeleteOur advances in technology over the years have been incredible. The technology has evolved greatly which is diffidently shown in this situation. Years ago the technology we had would not have be able to upright the ship of Costa Concordia but now with the advances and effort put forth a plan to upright the ship they did it. Engineers used computers to look inside the ship which allowed them to understand what needed to be done. Robotic Submarines were also used , which goes to show another advance in technology.
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