Yes, I know it is so hard to believe. But I found this article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. It is about Saildrone. Saildrone is a robot sailboat. The machine spent 7 months and traveled 12,500 miles to sail around Antarctica. Saildrone brought back vital information about the climate and carbon absorption in the Southern Ocean.
Saildrone is also the name of the private sector company that designed and built the robot sailboat.
However, this is the interesting point of the article to me. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) designed the carbon dioxide sensor used by the robot sailboat.
Without Saildrone the robot sailboat and all the work in creating it may not have ever happen. Without NOAA designing the sensor, Saildrone may not have been commercially viable. This is an excellent example of business and government working together for a common goal. As a result, NOAA and other U.S. and international government agencies use the data for several important purposes.
The article offers far more on Saildrone and the trials and tribulations of the company. It is a very good read.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-05/saildrone-s-journey-around-antarctica-uncovers-new-climate-clues
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