. >> kris van nijen: it's a caterpillar. a caterpillar track, so we said, "what is the fastest caterpillar on earth?" and it's called the patania ruralis. >> whitaker: kris van nijen, the managing director of global sea mineral resources, or g.s.r., told us patania cost $12-million.it wu might expect you crossed a bulldozer with a giant vacuum cleaner- and then stuffed it with electronics. >> van nijen: so the nodules are sucked into a stream and they go into the system. it's got the capacity to store three tons of nodules. >> whitaker: three tons of-- >> van nijen: three tons of nodules. >> whitaker: how many nodules are down there? >> van nijen: it is estimated that there is more nickel, more cobalt, and more manganese than on the rest of the planet. >> whitaker: in 2017 g.s.r. was the first to put a robot on the seafloor. last summer, expectations were high for patania's second plunge into the pacific. a specially built frame swung the 35-ton machine over the edge of the ship, a fiber optic umbilical cord unspooling as it