Kethane on the water

[SpacedCowboy]

A couple of weeks ago, someone was displaying their Kethane drilling rig, (platform that floats on the surface of the water). They were having a buoyancy issue as to how the platform floated on the surface. Recently, I had a re-entry go bad. (and yeah, Jeb died again) The only thing that survived was an empty kethane tank which hilariously bounced up into the air hundreds of meters, 3 or 4 times! (Felt like I was watching a danny video). Anyways, the light bulb went on, and thought, "Hey, I can make a great floating platform utilizing empty kethane tanks! So I went about constructing a kethane drilling rig powered by 4 turbo jets, testing it out in the water just north of the launch pad several times. I must have had two or three hours invested in the making. So I send it on it's maiden voyage to a pre-mapped kethane site several kilometers due south of the KSC, splashed down almost perfectly using the turbos and chutes, deployed the drills.,.,., and nothing! The platform sat about 2 or 3 meters above the surface, with the converter, tank and drills almost submerged. Everything was working but it didn't work! Whats the deal here?

[Voculus]

The drills must make physical contact with the seabed below, in order to extract the Kethane. I've read a number of theories about trying to get the drills to sink to the bottom, while attached by a winch, but I have never seen a single video or screenshot of Kethane being mined from underwater. As far as I can tell, Kethane deposits underwater are inaccessible.

[Vertibirdo]

Here is the thread, that can be of some use.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/49318-Deep-water-kethan-mining

[Raven.]

Like Voculus has mentioned, Kethane located below water is inaccessible, unless it is close to shore enough where you can get a drill in the ground.

[Kilmeister]

I haven't tried it so this is pure speculation. But I know there's a submarine part mod that you can adjust your depth. I imagine you could use that and create a submersible vehicle to go get it.

[SpacedCowboy]

Boy, now I feel like a total idiot! The thought did cross my mind that the kethane might be down in the sea bed but, with a land drill the bit merely scratched the surface and your'e getting kethane, so I didn't think the mod would be THAT realistic. After all, let's not forget this same mod has that KE-WAITNONOSTOP Kerbal blender! Regardless, thank you for providing the link. It was quite the education. I was most impressed and inspired with Seanth's "Water Strider".