BBC story here
A team of imaging experts, scientists and historians will set sail for the Titanic on Friday [12th] to gather the most detailed photographic record ever made of the wreck.
The BBC has had exclusive access to expedition members here in the US city of Providence, Rhode Island, as they make preparations to leave port.
They'll be using state of the art technology to scan every nook and cranny of the famous liner to gain new insights into its sinking...
Two robotic vehicles will dive to the ocean bottom to capture millions of high-resolution photographs and to make a 3D model of all the debris...
...while the bow and stern sections of the broken ship are reasonably well understood, there are extensive areas of the surrounding debris field that have received only cursory inspection...
Two six-tonne remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) intend to put that right. One will be fitted with an array of ultra-high-definition optical cameras and a special lighting system; the other will carry a sensor package that includes a lidar (laser) scanner.
Together, they'll track back and forth across a 1.3km-by-0.97km section of seafloor.
Evan Kovacs, who's in charge of the imaging programme, says his camera systems should produce millimetre resolution...
There's huge anticipation for what the magnetometer aboard the sensor ROV might produce. This is a first for Titanic.
The instrument will detect all the metals at the wreck site, even material that is buried out of sight in the sediment...
...we should be able to capture Titanic and the wreck site in as close to digital perfection as you can get. You would be able to quite literally count grains of sand," he told BBC News.
A team of imaging experts, scientists and historians will set sail for the Titanic on Friday [12th] to gather the most detailed photographic record ever made of the wreck.
The BBC has had exclusive access to expedition members here in the US city of Providence, Rhode Island, as they make preparations to leave port.
They'll be using state of the art technology to scan every nook and cranny of the famous liner to gain new insights into its sinking...
Two robotic vehicles will dive to the ocean bottom to capture millions of high-resolution photographs and to make a 3D model of all the debris...
...while the bow and stern sections of the broken ship are reasonably well understood, there are extensive areas of the surrounding debris field that have received only cursory inspection...
Two six-tonne remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) intend to put that right. One will be fitted with an array of ultra-high-definition optical cameras and a special lighting system; the other will carry a sensor package that includes a lidar (laser) scanner.
Together, they'll track back and forth across a 1.3km-by-0.97km section of seafloor.
Evan Kovacs, who's in charge of the imaging programme, says his camera systems should produce millimetre resolution...
There's huge anticipation for what the magnetometer aboard the sensor ROV might produce. This is a first for Titanic.
The instrument will detect all the metals at the wreck site, even material that is buried out of sight in the sediment...
...we should be able to capture Titanic and the wreck site in as close to digital perfection as you can get. You would be able to quite literally count grains of sand," he told BBC News.
