"Did the Robot Plug the Hole Daddy?"

Now that Obama has had his photo op on the beach, and enjoyed his oil field "fifteen minutes of fame" last Friday as he showed us all what a tar ball looks like, it's time for him and the rest of the government to get the hell out of the way, and let the oil experts do their job.

As a former President of a company that pioneered underwater robotics, and someone that worked in that business for 30+ years, all I can say is what BP and their support companies are trying to do is amazing. Yes, the blowout should not have happened, and yes the oil spill is a once-in-a-lifetime disaster, and yes it will probably get worse. But it "is what it is" and the problem they are trying to solve one mile underwater with just robots, is truly impressive.

To put things in perspective, we have all seen astronauts leaving the space station on a 100 foot tether cable and working in a weightless environment. We have seen how difficult that is, and how long it took for the astronaut to do each task. Can you imagine trying to do what those astronauts have done, with just robots? And instead of the problem being 100 feet away, try solving it underwater and a mile below the control station.

The robots working on that oil leak are working in a weightless environment just like an astronaut, probably with not a lot of visibility, and the man operating the machine is a mile above and controlling everything while looking at a TV screen. The water temperature is freezing, and the water pressure is more that one ton on every square inch of that robot.

BP is to blame for this oil spill, and so are the drilling company and government regulators that monitor drilling operations, but instead of directing anger at the people that are trying to stop the oil leak we should be amazed at the technology that can even try to solve this problem, a mile underwater where no man, not even in the most sophisticated space suit could ever survive.