First scientific mission with Lithium batteries Slocum glider
The first scientific mission undertaken with a Slocum glider, known as SDEEP00, powered with Lithium ended on June 14, 2013. This is an important step forward towards the enlargement of mission duration. This deployment corresponded to the May-June Endurance Line of the "Canales" missions 2013 and lasted 26 days during which the glider has covered 649 Km (351 nm) sampling the waters of the Mallorca and Eïvissa channels with physical and bio-geochemical sensors. Essentially, SDEEP00 joins the fleet of Lithium-capable gliders at SOCIB, SDEEP02 and SDEEP03, which are Sea Glider units from manufacturer iRobot®.
The Lithium battery pack used to power SDEEP00 is an official supply from the Slocum glider manufacturer, Teledyne Webb Research®, offering several advantages when compared against traditional Alkaline battery packs since it:
- (1) Disposes of various security systems to minimize the risks associated with the usage of energy cells in underwater vehicles
- (2) It reduces the monetary cost in terms of unit of capacity (Ah) per USD ($) by
- (3) Offering five times more capacity.
The completed mission has been the first one of this particular Lithium pack and consumed 114 Ah out of the initial 720 Ah. SDEEP00 glider will continue using this pack in forthcoming missions of the Balearic channels Endurance Line.
