Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Alvin Submersible Retired After 40 Years Work

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the that'll-do-sub dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The legendary deep-sea manned submersible Alvin is retiring after 40 years of scientific work. Alvin has taken 12,000 people on over 4,000 dives, helping to confirm plate tectonics and continental drift. It discovered hydrothermal vents, salvaged a hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean Sea and explored the Titanic. Alvin will be replaced by a larger vehicle that will come into service in 2008."

8 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Simon, Theodore to continue on by egg+troll · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll miss that rascally little Chipmunk and his whimsical adventures.

    --

    C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
    1. Re:Simon, Theodore to continue on by lxt · · Score: 2, Funny

      Do you think he'll form a splinter group, possible called "Sea Wings" or similar?

  2. Interesting... by Stevyn · · Score: 3, Funny

    But what about Simon and Theodore?

  3. Alvin is great and all, but by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Funny

    and explored the Titanic. ...if only it could have missed the Titanic, we would have been spared some DiCaprio acting, and more importantly, 3:30 minutes of ear-pearcing Celine Dion.

    But aside from that, good work Alvin, and good retirement!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
    1. Re:Alvin is great and all, but by vsprintf · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...if only it could have missed the Titanic, we would have been spared some DiCaprio acting, and more importantly, 3:30 minutes of ear-pearcing Celine Dion.

      At least in Titanic, DiCaprio was somewhat fitting for the part. In Gangs of New York, using DiCaprio was like casting Tinker Bell for Captain Hook's role.

  4. Re:40 years ago... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Funny

    Programmers and nerds are weird. The only things that amazes then from the year 1964 are that:

    * we hadn't been on the moon yet (granted, that's a landmark in human history)

    * C was way in the future

    * LISP already existed

    Well hmm, I guess it's all a matter of personal perspective...

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. hmmm. by say__10 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please tell me they are going to name the successor 'Simon' or 'Theodore'.

    --
    Home of the midwest loser - www.say-10.net
  6. Re:Keep Both by cvdwl · · Score: 2, Funny
    Someone better tell WHOI, they have 97 dives planned for 2005 and 19 dives left this year! At the end of the first link, there's a reference to an Alvin "overhaul", not retirement, overhaul.

    --
    ... grumble, grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter, Millenium... Hand... Shrimp, I tol' 'em, I tol' 'em.