Testing MARE-Madeira’s low-cost research tools at high pressure in GEOMAR’s hyperbaric chamber
Exchanging knowledge
Lessons learned from the first TWILIGHTED staff exchange
By Diane Esson, with inputs from Marko Radeta, Dinarte Vieira and João Pestana, July 2025
Three members of MARE-Madeira’s Marine Technology and AI team (‘Wave Labs’) traveled to Kiel, Germany in February with some of our low-cost marine technologies in tow. Over the course of two days with the GEOMAR team, Marko, João and Dinarte were able to test these technologies in GEOMAR’s hyperbaric chamber, as well as gain a better sense of the tools and techniques used at GEOMAR to conduct deep-sea technology development, testing and research.
The Wave Labs team tested three MARE-Madeira technologies in GEOMAR’s hyperbaric chamber: a 3D-printed prototype of a deep-sea camera (‘dummy cam’), a pressure logger and an auto-release system. In this chamber, they performed a total of seven dives for almost eight hours of exposure to high pressures – up to 500 bars, the equivalent of ~5,000 m in depth.
MARE-Madeira equipment tested at GEOMAR’s facilities, including the low-cost auto-release system, MARS
MARE-Madeira’s equipment fared well, with the greatest victory being the successful controlled ignition of the auto-release system at all depths. These trials were extremely valuable to the Wave Labs team, demonstrating the utility of our low-cost systems at high pressures. Testing this in a controlled environment helps reduce the costs of conducting trials in the open ocean (where a failed deployment could happen for many reasons, and we’d never know why!). We also identified an area of weakness in the release system, as the timer cracked at 200 bars of pressure.
Overall, our first staff exchange provided a great opportunity for MARE-Madeira’s Wave Labs to gain insights into technical and engineering processes at a leading research institute, verify the integrity of in-house developed tools at high pressure, conduct performance tests and identify faults, and get input from GEOMAR’s engineering and deep-sea research experts on how to improve our systems. It was also another step towards greater collaboration, with faces put to names and discoveries of shared enthusiasms – we look forward to working more with the awesome and knowledgable GEOMAR team in the future!
João Pestana, Jan Dierking, Marko Radeta and Dinarte Vieira at GEOMAR; the MARE-Madeira team sharing initial trials of MARS in Madeira with the GEOMAR team
Learn more about MARE-Madeira’s low-cost auto-release system in our recent TWILIGHTED publication:
Radeta, M., Monteiro, J.G., Pestana, J., Vieira, D., Abreu, P., Silva, R., Schäfer, S., Ramalhosa, P., Martos, A.L., Loureiro, B., Queiroz, N., Seabra, R., Lima, F.P. and Canning-Clode, J. (2025), MARS: Programmable multipurpose auto-release system for aquatic observations. Limnol Oceanogr Methods, 23: 376-388. https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10688