mersed in the Gulf Stream, finally to surface south of Nova Scotia. The 

 submersible is owned by Grumman Aircraft Corp.; the expedition was 

 carried out in cooperation with the Navy and NASA. Not only was the 

 project an industry-government partnership, it was also international in 

 flavor; in addition to the embarked U.S. personnel, the chief scientist was 

 Swiss, and the acoustician British. 



The primary purpose of the drift mission was to demonstrate the Ben 

 Franklin's ability to operate and sustain the crew of six for a long period, 

 and to conduct oceanographic observations submerged for extended times. 

 The Navy's prime interest was in the instrumentation suite, while NASA's 

 interest stemmed from the similarity of the craft to a space station with 

 the resulting opportunity to study the effects of the extended period of 

 isolation and confinement on human beings. 



From a scientific point of view, the mission provided the opportunity 

 for a unique kind of sampling. Scientists have long studied the ocean's 

 characteristics by sitting at one point and letting the water go by; the 

 Ben Franklin cruise, on the other hand, stayed with a body of water over 

 a long period of time, riding in it as it moved through the ocean, and 

 observing changes that took place during the period. 



The Gulf Stream's speed, local turbulence, and physical and acoustic 

 properties were investigated through observations and recordings of almost 

 1 million measurements of temperature, sound velocity, and salinity along 

 the track. Stereophotographs of the bottom were taken at five locations, 

 as well as side-scan sonar imagery of the bottom, along with measurements 

 of the acoustic reflectivity of the ocean bottom and the volume reverberation 

 coefficient of the water at selected locations. 



The Gulf Stream drift mission accomplished its primary objectives of sus- 

 tained submergence and of identifying problem areas. With only few ex- 

 ceptions, life support systems worked well. Carbon monoxide accumulation 

 and bacterial growth occasionally posed problems, but remained within ac- 

 ceptable limits. Various components of the suite of equipment failed at 

 various times, and the need for specific corrective actions was thus identified. 



Federal Leadership for Environmental Predictions 



The sea and the air form a closely knit physical complex, operating under 

 similar physical laws, in which changes in one strongly influence the actions 

 of the other. Much of the Nation's capability for the prediction of ocean- 

 ographic factors has evolved in meteorological forecasting centers and the 

 two activities are often co-located. Federal agency funding for programs in 

 support of environmental forecasts and associated observations is shown 

 in table IX-3. 



In 1969 a Federal Planning Guide for Marine Environmental Predictions 

 (MAREP), which had been completed by the Council's Interagency Com- 

 mittee on Ocean Exploration and Environmental Services, was reviewed by 



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