151 



done first in the ocean to train these folks how to handle construc- 

 tion in a different gravity situation. 



I am a Httle bit concerned, and I will put this for the record, Mr. 

 Chairman, that it's something we should look into that the efforts 

 to build a space suit and a dive suit have been actually thwarted, 

 I believe, by some of the bureaucratic impediments in NASA, and 

 that we should actually be looking at that to make sure that that 

 isn't thwarted. 



Finally, I'd just like to, Mr. Baker, about the NOAA fleet, which 

 you made passing reference to. And I'd like to ask our naval rep- 

 resentatives this: 



Can't the Navy provide NOAA some help here so we don't have 

 to have a separate NOAA fleet and Navy fleet? And to the degree 

 that you can, can't we just charter some people from the private 

 sector? 



Dr. Baker. Mr. Rohrabacher, that's a topic of great concern and 

 interest to us. You and I have talked about this before 



Mr. Rohrabacher. Yes, we have. 



Dr. Baker, (continuing) trying to have an efficient operation, op- 

 erating within what we know are very tight budget constraints. 



We have to go to sea to do our work. We have to have people out 

 there. I think we all agree that that has to happen. 



Mr. Rohrabacher. Sure. 



Dr. Baker. The question is how do you do it? 



We have a plan that allows us to, we think, utilize the best of 

 all the ways in which the nation can go to sea. That is, with gov- 

 ernment-owned assets, with private industry, and with the aca- 

 demic community. 



And our current ship plan — remember that NOAA originally 

 started out with a fleet of 25 ships that were government-owned 

 and government-operated. 



Our current plan is to have a mix of ships which would come ei- 

 ther from the government, from private industry, or from aca- 

 demia, and each time that we look for a ship, we look at the cheap- 

 est way to do it. 



This could be the Navy. This could be the academic community. 

 It could be private industry. And in fact, as you look at the NOAA 

 fleet, we have three major functions. We have fisheries, we have 

 mapping and charting, and we have research. 



We will be looking to the research community to help us with re- 

 search ships. We will be looking to the private industry to helping 

 us with mapping and charting. And we'll probably have a mixture 

 of these for fisheries. 



But we have a process in place that allows us to look at the 

 cheapest way to do it in each case. And it may well be that the 

 Navy can provide us some help. We don't have a formal arrange- 

 ment at that point. The Navy has worked very closely and built up 

 the academic community and has had a very strong relation. We 

 have close relations with the Navy. 



So this is something that we're working on. 



Let me just say one thing about the space side. 



Mr. Rohrabacher. Yes. 



