Environment Animals Wildlife Fish Self-piloting submarine set to begin historic mission to circle Earth's oceans Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An autonomous submersible named Redwing is heading out on a truly historic voyage. If successful, it will achieve the first around-the-world ocean trip made by an unpiloted underwater vehicle . Marine engineering company Teledyne Marine and researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey are planning to launch the nearly nine-foot-long, specially outfitted Slocum Sentinel Glider on October 11 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. A livestream of the launch will be broadcast here, beginning at about 8:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday October 11.

Redwing, a robotic submarine about the size of a surfboard, is embarking on a five-year journey that will follow the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the world A small robot submarine is setting out to go around the world for the first time. Teledyne Marine and Rutgers University New Brunswick in New Jersey are launching an underwater glider called Redwing on its Sentinel Mission from Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts on 11 October. Researchers have been using underwater gliders since the 1990s. Rather than a propeller, gliders have a buoyancy engine, a gas-filled piston that slightly changes the craft's overall buoyancy. An electric motor pushes the piston in to make the glider heavier than water so it slowly sinks, coasting downwards at a shallow angle.