earth science

Oceaneering International

Oceaneering International is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Oceaneering International rather than just read about it. In short: Oceaneering International, Inc. is a subsea engineering and applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments. Oceaneering's business offerings include remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services, specialty oilfield subsea hardware, deepwater intervention and crewed diving services, non-destructive te…

Key takeaways

Oceaneering International belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Oceaneering International to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Oceaneering International from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Oceaneering International, Inc. is a subsea engineering and applied technology company based in Houston, Texas, U.S. that provides engineered services and hardware to customers who operate in marine, space, and other environments. Oceaneering's business offerings include remotely operated vehicle (ROV) services, specialty oilfield subsea hardware, deepwater intervention and crewed diving services, non-destructive testing and inspections, engineering and project management, and surveying and mapping services. Its services and products are marketed worldwide to oil and gas companies, government agencies, and firms in the aerospace, marine engineering and mobile robotics and construction industries.

History Oceaneering was founded in 1964 with the incorporation of World Wide Divers, Inc., one of three companies who merged in 1969 to operate under the name Oceaneering International, Inc. The merged companies were World Wide Divers, Inc. (Morgan City, LA), California Divers, Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA), and Can-Dive Services Ltd (North Vancouver, BC). World Wide Divers, Inc. was owned by Mike Hughes and Johnny Johnson. California Divers, Inc. was owned by Lad Handelman, Gene Handelman, Kevin Lengyel, and Bob Ratcliffe. Can-Dive Services Ltd was owned by Phil Nuytten and partners. Mike Hughes served as Chairman of the Board and Lad Handelman served as President of the merged companies.

Research and Diving Technology In the early 1970s, Oceaneering supported considerable research into ways to increase safety of their divers and general diving efficiency, including their collaboration with Duke University Medical Center to explore the use of trimix breathing gas to reduce the incidence of high-pressure nervous syndrome. Oceaneering purchased the rights to the JIM suit in 1975. By 1979, a team from Oceaneering assisted Dr. Sylvia Earle in testing Atmospheric diving suits for scientific diving operations by diving a JIM suit to 1,250 fsw. Oceaneering also used WASP atmospheric diving suits.

Salvage and Recovery Operations A dive team from Oceaneering salvaged three of the four propellers from the RMS Lusitania in 1982. Oceaneering ROVs were used to determine what happened to the cargo ship Lucona in the 1991 murder and fraud investigation that claimed uranium mining equipment was lost when the vessel went down. Recovery of the airplane cockpit voice recorder in the loss of ValuJet Flight 592 was a priority in early 1996. In the days following the loss of TWA Flight 800 later that same year, Oceaneering was contacted to provide ROV support to the US Navy lead search and recovery effort. Oceaneering helped recover the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, which sank in 1864. Several recovery plans were evaluated; the final recovery included a truss structure with foam to surround the body of the submarine. On August 8, 2000, at 8:37 a.m., the sub broke the surface for the first time in 136 years.

Robotics, Space, and Special Projects From 1984 to 1988, Michael L. Gernhardt served as Oceaneering's Manager and then Vice President of Special Projects. He led the development of a telerobotic system for subsea platform cleaning and inspection, and of a variety of new diver and robot tools. In 1988, he founded Oceaneering Space Systems, to transfer subsea technology and operational experience to the ISS program. After the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Oceaneering teams recovered the Solid Rocket Booster that contained the faulty O-ring responsible for launch's failure. On August 2, 2006, NASA announced it would issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design, development, certification, production and sustaining engineering of the Constellation Space Suit to meet the needs of the Constellation Program. On June 11, 2008, NASA awarded a USD$745 million contract to Oceaneering for the creation and manufacture of this new space suit.

Defense and Naval Engineering In 2006, NAVSEA awarded Oceaneering a maintenance contract for the Dry Deck Shelter program. Dry Deck Shelters are used to transport equipment such as the Advanced SEAL Delivery System and Combat Rubber Raiding Craft aboard a submarine. In 2009, Oceaneering installed a demonstrator crane aboard the SS Flickertail State to evaluate its performance in transferring containers between two moving ships, in an operational environment using commercial and oil industry at-sea mooring techniques in the Gulf of Mexico. Developed in conjunction with the Sea Warfare and Weapons Department in the Office of Naval Research, the crane has sensors and cameras as well as motion-sensing algorithms that automatically compensate for the rolling and pitching of the sea, making it much easier for operators to center it over and transfer cargo.

Industry Collaborations and Technology Licensing Oceaneering teamed up with the Canadian company GRI Simulations to design and produce the ROV simulators they utilize for training, development of procedures, and equipment staging. After a dispute over theft of trade secrets and copyright infringement that lasted several years, Oceaneering now licenses the VROV simulator system from GRI Simulations. A 2009 collaboration with Royal Dutch Shell saw the installation of a wireline at a record 2,673 feet (815 m) of water for repairing a safety valve. Boeing and Fugro teamed up with Oceaneering in 2001 to begin integration of their advanced technology into deep sea exploration.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Oceaneering International

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Oceaneering International claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Oceaneering International before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Oceaneering International ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Oceaneering International

In research: Oceaneering International appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Oceaneering International in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Oceaneering International is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 establishments in Texas, Aerospace companies of the United States, American entities subject to Chinese government sanctions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Oceaneering International outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Oceaneering International in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Oceaneering International means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Oceaneering International out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Oceaneering International in simple terms?

Why does Oceaneering International matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Oceaneering International?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Oceaneering International.