Before ABE’s first deployment in the mid-1990s, two of its inventors, Al Bradley (left) and Dana Yoerger, tested the autonomous underwater vehicle in the test well at the WHOI dock in Woods Hole. Recognizing ABE’s coincidental resemblance to the Starship Enterprise, they playfully stenciled “NCC-1701” on ABE’s flanks—the same numbers that adorned the fictional Star Trek spaceship. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)[back]
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