10 



tary or diplomatic strength, the sea and the space have much in 

 common. Certainly, technology is the key to both. On our own, we 

 are as earthbound as elephants, whether the goals are high in the 

 sky or into the depths. 



Technologically and scientifically, the sea-space relationship was 

 demonstrated eloquently less than a month ago when NASA used 

 an underwater vehicle, a system called Phantom, built with private 

 funds by a company that I co-founded some years ago. Deep Ocean 

 Engineering. It was used in a NASA project as a part of a program 

 of technological development for access to Mars in the most Mars- 

 like habitat on earth, Antarctica. 



What was done by the NASA scientists was fascinating. They 

 used a helmet remarkably like a virtual reality helmet, but in this 

 case it was equipped with television monitors inside the helmet 

 that responded to cameras that were thousands of miles away, and 

 the effect was reality reality, not virtual reality because the pilot, 

 as he turned his head and caused cameras in Antarctica to re- 

 spond, was getting a real-time view of what was actually happening 

 at the other side of earth. The idea is that this same approach can 

 be used from spacecraft exploring Mars or even governed from 

 here on earth. 



This may not sound like a big technological breakthrough. We 

 get so inundated with new technology that this may seem a little 

 ho-hum, but to keep things in perspective, the first ever live televi- 

 sion broadcast from Antarctica occurred only a few months 

 before — last November — during a Good Morning America program, 

 again, involving NASA scientists using an underwater vehicle. 



Actually, to keep this sea-space parallel in perspective, and I will 

 give a little historic view as well, I think it is useful to recall the 

 history of NOAA and NURP and my introduction to an early iter- 

 ation of NURP that occurred in part courtesy of NASA back in 

 1970. I was the leader of a team of aquanauts living in an under- 

 water laboratory in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It was called the Tek- 

 tite underwater habitat. It then operated underwater programs for 

 this country under the auspices of the Department of Interior and 

 in this case with support from the Navy and from NASA. 



There was considerable interest in the behavior of those living 

 and working in isolation underwater for 10 days to 2 months be- 

 cause of the relevance of experience gained to future programs 

 such as Skylab for the space shuttle and the space station. We 

 were monitored continuously by video cameras and NASA psy- 

 chologists seeking insight into how men and — there was some talk 

 about how maybe even women might be effectively supported while 

 in more distant, hostile environments. Remember, this was 23 

 years ago. 



Even the equipment we used had parallels in space gear. In addi- 

 tion to using conventional scuba, Tektite aquanauts were supplied 

 with rebreathers, the concept first developed for underwater appli- 

 cations but refined to a high degree, and I am confident with a 

 high price tag, for astronauts to make possible excursions lasting 

 many hours, much more so than are possible with something like 

 scuba or a scuba equivalent. 



Since that time, underwater operations have continued. You will 

 hear perhaps a bit more about HYDROLAB operated under the 



