Eureka III delivers four dry metric tons of nodules every 3.8 hours. Eureka IV delivers 12 dry metric tons. The breakdown of the mission time for Eureka III is as follows:
- Launch Eureka from transport vessel to ocean: 1 minute
- Dive Eureka to seabed at 4.7km depth: 68.8 minutes
- Harvest nodules to fill Eureka payload: 53.1 minutes
- Rise Eureka up the 5km water column: 68.8 minutes
- Recovery of Eureka from the ocean to the transport vessel using our Smart Launch and Recovery System (SLARS): 4 minutes
- In parallel on the vessel: 30 minutes
- Unload Eureka payload of nodules to the transport vessel
- Eureka battery swapped for fully charged new battery pack
- Eureka vehicle maintenance
- Download of mission data
- Upload of next mission
Total = 255.6 minutes or 3.8 hours
Please also see Question D.4 How do you scale to high production rates?