166 



urgency from the President's Scientific Advisory Committee (PSAC) , 

 and proposed that work proceed at once on the "ultimate" drilling 

 vessel.^^ 



On July 27, 1961, a bidders' briefing was held at NSF to launch the 

 competition for the contract to manage the Mohole project. Bids were 

 received September 11, and a review procedure undertaken. On Febru- 

 ary 28, 1962, NSF Director Waterman announced the selection of 

 Brown & Root, of Houston, Tex., to execute the project. The task for 

 which the contractor was engaged was described in the contract as 

 follows : 



The contractor will plan, manage, supervise, perform, and/or coordinate all 

 activities and furnish or procure all services, material, and facilities necessary for 

 the drilling, sampling, and logging of a hole through the crust of the earth for 

 scientific purposes, at a site to be selected in collaboration with the National 

 Science Foundation. 



As later paraphrased in 1963 by Dr. Haworth, who replaced Dr. 

 Waterman as Director of NSF, the task encompassed five stages, as 

 follows : 



(a) The accomplishment of an engineering plan and cost study after con- 

 ducting appropriate research and development covering the various aspects 

 of the work ; 



( b ) Site services and recommendations ; 



(c) Developing, producing, manufacturing, procurement, and testing of 

 components, instrumentation, and systems required for the job ; 



{(l) Recommendations for a selection and procurement of a drilling plat- 

 form ; and 



(e) Conduct of the drilling operations and provision of necessary logistics 

 for a period of up to 4 years to carry out the scientific programs." 



A major study ^* of the design of an "intermediate" drilling vessel 

 was completed by the AMSOC technical staff, April 30, 1962. In it, 

 the AMSOC staff announced that they had left the Academy to form 

 a new corporation. Ocean Science & Engineering, Inc., under the 

 leadership of Willard Bascom. 



Progress of Mohole under the management of Brown & Root was 

 slower than had been anticipated, (In May of 1961, Bascom had told 

 a House subcommittee : "Within 5 years we can reach the Moho." x\t 

 the same hearing, an NSF official spoke of "3 to 5 years" as his own 

 estimate.) Between the time the contract became firm and its termina- 

 tion at the end of August 1966, the contractor had prepared designs 

 and placed a construction contract for the "ultimate" drilling plat- 

 form; an initial drilling site had been chosen; estimated acquisition 

 costs of the system had begun to near $100 million ; important improve- 

 ments had been made in drilling technology ; but the capability of the 

 system to perform the ultimate mission still remained in doubt and 



" Baped on an account by Greenberg. Op. cit.. p. 186. Comments Greenberg : "Why this 

 top-level advisory body [PSAC] should have felt urgency in this matter is not clear, but 

 technological spectaculars — such as the manned lunar program suddenly announced by 

 Kennedy a few months earlier— had become a highly effective technique for providing a 

 financial uplift for all fields of science and technology, and possibly PSAC regarded Mohole 

 as a master key for opening the treasury to all the earth sciences. In any case, both the 

 White House and AMSOC's own drilling panel said the 'ultimate' ship should be the next 

 step." 



^^ Testimony of Dr. Leland Haworth. In U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on Appropri- 

 ations. Independent Ofiices Appropriations, 1964. Hearings before a Subcommittee of 

 the * • * Pt. II, 8Sth Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 

 1964), p. 2308. 



" National Research Council. AMSOC Committee. "Design of a Deep Ocean Drilling 

 Ship." (Prepared by) the technical staff of the AMSOC Committee, Division of Earth 

 Sciences. (Washington, D,C., National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 

 1962, Publication No. 984), 172 pages. 



