And you thought you could avoid answering a text message in a submarine? Soon enough that won’t be an excuse thanks to a 40-inch-long buoy that allows submarine captains to send SMSes from under the sea.
As you can guess for yourself, the buoy stays tethered to the submarine by miles of cables which can be easily cut if necessary.
Lockheed Martin designed the system, and the next step is to further improve it by cutting cords and introducing an “acoustic messaging system” that resembles sonar. Such a device could be dropped from airplanes in case of emergencies.
At the moment, submarines have go up to near periscope depth to communicate, becoming more vulnerable to attacks. With a system that can handle SMS under water, both safety and communication availability of the sailors is increased.
Sceptics among us will come to a different conclusion – that we’ll soon live in a world where everyone can reach us, no matter where we happen to be. Still, I like the idea and I’m sure sailors will love it, too. 😉
[Via: DiscoverMagazine]