The March 2022 dives in the Deep Ecton mine were a continuation of the former UNEXMIN mission. Our UX-series robots were tested here in 2019, reached depths of 125 m and explored several previously unknown shafts and passages. Although this area is certainly no longer relevant from a mining point of view – it is in the middle of a highly protected national park – it has many archaeological features. So, we returned in March 2022 to test our newly developed UX1-Neo robot, partly to confirm the results of the 2019 survey and partly to continue mapping the passages.
On 22 March 2022, UX1-Neo successfully dived the “pumping shaft” to the blockage between 124 and 127 m and inspected all open side passages on the way up, which resulted in a large amount of new information compared to the previous missions. The data obtained was a significant addition to the information collected during the 2019 dives.
On 23 March, the UX1-Neo robot became entangled in a 2 mm nylon fishing line during a dive in the winding shaft, which had to be manually removed from the thrusters after the dive was completed.
