57 



Sea-space parallels are wondeliilly fcal. whether seddng answers to questions about the 

 origin of life or knowledge of how the planet works; whether in terms of solving 

 technological challenges of working in enviromnents considered hostile to human beings 

 or of mastering problems requiring diplomatic or military strength — . the sea and 

 space have much in common. Certainly, technology is the key to both. On our own, we 

 are as earth-bound as elephants, whether the goals arc high in the sky or into the depths. 



Technologically and scientifically, the sea-space relaticm^ip was dononstrated 

 eloquently less than a month ago when an underwater vehicle called Phantom, designed 

 and built with private fimds by the company I founded, Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc. 

 was used in a NASA project as a part of a program of technological development for 

 access to Mars. More than 250 Eliantom vehicles have been put into operation 

 Specifically, Phantom was being operated in the most Mars-like environment on earth, 

 Antarctica, by a scientist sitting at the NASA Ames facility in California. He wore a 

 virtual reality-type hdm^ with built-in video screens for viewing recrii^ teaiity - 

 underwater, under the ice. As the pilot turned his head in California, the cameras on the 

 vehicle in Antarctica responded arid via microwave and sateUite, a view of life beneath 

 the ice was conveyed in real time through Phantom's "^es.* This may not sound like 

 big technological bieaktiirough, but to keep things in perspective, the first ever live 

 television broadcast from Antarctica occuned only a few months ago during a Good 

 Morning America pixjgrain, again involving NASA spacB scientists usmg a Phantom 

 wtdaruMtv vehicle. 



Actually, myintnxhiction to an early iteration of NURP occurred in part courtesy of 

 NASA in Iv70. I was leader of a team of aquanauts living in an underwater laboratory in 

 the U.S. Virgin Islands operated under the auspices of the Oeparttnetit of the interior, 

 but with significant support, financial and moral, from NASA. Even the name of the 

 program, the Tektite FVoject, was intended to symbolize the close relationship between 

 the sea and ^>ace. (Tdctites are glassy bits of matter from spact that iall mostly in the 

 sea.) There was considerable interest in the behavior of those of us living and working in 

 isolation underwater for ten days to two months because of the relevance of experience 

 gained to ^tuie p ro g r am s such as Skylab, the Space Shuttle, and the Space Station. We 

 were monitored contiinioualy by vidn> cameras and NASA psychok>gists seeking insight 

 into how men — and ttieie was some talk about how maybe even womm. — might be 

 effectively supported while in moie distant hfistile environments. 



£ven the equipment we used had parallels in spatx gear. In addition to using 

 conventional scuba for excursioas from the underwatO' laboratory, Tektite aquanauts 

 were supplied with rd>reatheTs, a concept first developed for underwater applications, 

 but refined to a high d^ree for use by astronauts to make possible excursions lasting 

 many hours by literally rttrtadun^ the same air, but with carbon dioxide chemically 

 removed and oxygen added as required. 



When I entered the Tddile underwater laboratory as an aquanaut in July, 1970, NURP- 

 like programs for this cotmtry were being channeled through the Department of the 

 Interior. When I emerged two weeks lata', the deciaon had been made to create NOAA 

 and to move these pn^iams and the many others things now embraced by "NOAA into 

 the Department of Cominetce. What has evolved is not at all like what was Mticipated 

 by tlkoae who explained at the time Oat NOAA was intended to be a 'wet NASA.' 



Naturally, I am a strong supiniter of this country's commitment to ttie spaoeprogram. but 

 I am also among those who believe that justification for exhalation andieaearch of the 

 vast unknowns of this planet from the inside out are at least as urgent and compelling I 



