Deep tech startup specialising in optical sensors and edge analytics collaborates with BOEM to pioneer a new method of discovering cleantech resources on the seafloor.
Impossible Sensing, a deep tech start-up based in St. Louis that specialises in optical sensors and edge analytics, is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to pioneer a new way to discover cleantech resources on the seafloor. VIPER, a game-changing technology developed by Impossible Sensing, sends robotic laboratories to the ocean’s depths for the first time to identify and quantify the location, size, and nature of mineral deposits and biological communities.
VIPER uses Impossible Sensing’s space exploration technologies, which were originally developed for NASA, to fully map and discover marine minerals in the United States’ exclusive economic zone, while also providing critical information on sensitive habitats and species. These advancements will not only mitigate the United States’ strategic vulnerabilities and support a global shift to clean energy, but they will also document deep-sea biodiversity.
VIPER is the first low-cost tool for discovering and evaluating marine cleantech resources.
“To fulfill its mission, BOEM needs to gather further information on the location and extent of critical minerals on the outer continental shelf,” Mark Leung, Geologist and BOEM’s Office of Strategic Resources highlights. “Impossible Sensing’s VIPER technology finally breaks the value-cost trade-off by providing us with the tools we need to map the OCS.”
Without the need for samples, Impossible Sensing and BOEM estimate that 100 km2 mineral and environmental surveys can be completed in days rather than months.“This is the type of transformative innovation that BOEM and its partnering agencies require to advance ocean exploration goals,” remarks Leung.
VIPER will also help reduce carbon emissions, according to Impossible Sensing Founder and CEO Pablo Sobron.
“With VIPER, we are turning our space exploration innovations into game-changing cleantech solutions that will bring seafloor mineral resources to market sustainably and at the speed that rapid decarbonization requires. Because VIPER is so scalable and transformative, it will contribute to a green recovery by aiding in the acceleration of the electrification of transportation and other industries.”