This award funds the filming of the construction of a titanium personnel sphere, intended for use in a new Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV). This construction project is of historic importance. Not only will it produce a new deep submergence asset for the U.S. scientific community, but it could be the last 6500 m HOV built in the U.S., based on the longevity (four decades) of the current HOV Alvin, and the rapid advances in unmanned deep submergence vehicles. Capturing this process is important for two reasons: ? as a historical record for posterity ? as a record of the construction for science and engineering purposes, and in case of later problems with the HOV. In addition, such imagery, if of sufficient cinematographic quality, could provide excellent educational and outreach material related to deep submergence science and engineering.
Broader Impacts: The imagery will be available for education, outreach, noncommercial, and commercial use. Selected imagery will be posted on the WHOI website as rapidly as possible (there are already images of the forging of the two hemispheres on the Replacement HOV website).
