Canadians Plan Robot Sub Missions To Aid Claim For Arctic
jbpisio writes with a link to this blog-post summary that the Canadian government has commissioned a pair of unmanned subs to explore the geology of two underwater Arctic mountain ranges; the subs’ mission will be to provide evidence supporting Canada’s claim to huge swaths of potentially petroleum-rich seabed areas. According to the linked article, “The submersibles, scheduled to be launched in 2010, would be sent on a series of 400-kilometre missions north and west of Ellesmere Island, Canada’s northernmost land mass and the country’s gateway to the open Arctic Ocean - the scene of an international power struggle over undersea territory and petroleum resources believed to be worth trillions of dollars.” At least five countries (besides Canada, these are the US, Russia, Denmark and Norway) would like a slice of those trillions.Read more of this story at Slashdot.