Why does ABE look like the Starship Enterprise?
The resemblance to Captain Kirk’s spaceship is entirely coincidental, but it’s still worth explaining why ABE looks the way it does. ABE’s odd, three-hulled design was invented to make the vehicle very good at its main purpose: making high-resolution maps of the sea floor. To record at such detail, ABE’s sensors need to remain stable even in churning deep-sea currents. Engineers put most of ABE’s flotation in the top two pods, then suspended the heavy instruments and other gear in the bottom pod. The separation of buoyancy and mass makes ABE extremely resistant to pitching (forward and backward) and rolling (side-to-side). The design also places ABE’s vertical thrusters safely in the space between the three pods.
