By: Richard Spinrad
Image Credit: OLDSKOOLDAVE, Creative Commons.
When I started thinking about this blog entry, there was a quote by a preeminent oceanographer, the late Dr. Roger Revelle from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which resonated with me. Back in 1992, Dr. Revelle made the statement, "we know less about the ocean's bottom than we do about the moon's backside."
Systematic ocean exploration in the United States began in 1807 when Thomas Jefferson authorized the Survey of the Coast, NOAA's earliest predecessor. Despite research and technological advances, 95 percent of the ocean remains unexplored. Why do we need to explore the ocean? Well, if my blog from two weeks ago, How Oceanography Saved the World, didn't convince you, think about this: all life on Earth relies on the ocean--an ocean that provides oxygen and regulates global temperature to make the Earth livable. Other ocean benefits include food, energy, and transportation.
NOAA is the lead federal agency in an initiative to explore the ocean frontier. NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration and Research coordinates this effort by supporting expeditions and projects and developing ocean sensors and systems for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge. You can follow their missions on the award-winning Ocean Explorer web site.
Imagine the exciting discoveries that will be made by the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, "America's Ship for Ocean Exploration." The Okeanos Explorer is on course to be the only U.S. ship assigned to systematically explore our largely unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge, and for the first time, you will be able to witness these discoveries from your own home. Telepresence technology, using real-time broadband satellite communications, will bring the exciting discoveries to scientists and students from Narragansett to Nairobi to Nagasaki. This technology will give shore-based explorers of all ages access to the excitement of real-time discovery, and will help inspire a new generation of oceanographers, scientists, and engineers.
Telepresence is the key technology that promises to revolutionize ocean exploration. Traditionally, scientists explore the ocean from the ship. In contrast, telepresence will bring the ship and its discoveries to scientists. When situated at any of the five Exploration Command Centers, scientists also can interact directly with the Okeanos Explorer and participate remotely in each mission.
Last week, I mentioned the role of technology in ocean research. On May 31, a deep-sea robotic vehicle called Nereus successfully visited the deepest part of the world's ocean, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. At nearly 11,000 meters - over a mile deeper than Mount Everest is high - Challenger Deep is one of the most remote locations on Earth, and the Nereus is now the only vehicle in existence that can reach that depth. Building a vehicle that can withstand pressures 1,000 times that at Earth's surface was in immense technical challenge, and in building the Nereus, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has made it possible to explore such hostile environments.
Through exploration and research, we will develop a much-improved understanding of not only what our ocean resources are, but what the limitations are on their availability. In that regard, our consideration of the oceans as a more viable source of food, energy, biomedical products, and materials will grow dramatically; as will our understanding of how to harness these resources in a sustainable or renewable fashion. Just as new energy sources, such as deposits of methane in the ocean bottom, were unexpected and unreported until very late in the 20th century, we should expect additional discoveries of valuable products and materials from the sea in the years to come.
By exploring the ocean frontier, we will advance our understanding of ocean resources and will help in our utilization of these resources for the benefit of mankind, in an environmentally sound framework.
Find out how much you know about the undersea world. Team up with players around the globe to solve the Ocean Challenge Puzzle.
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