206 



and should be nurtured. Support for the 

 wide variety of participants in the programs 

 outlined in this chapter will require in- 

 creased Federal fundinfj. Such funding will 

 be provided chiefly by the National Science 

 Foundation, Navy, and NOAA, but also by 

 such organizations as the Atomic Energy 

 Commission and the National Aeronautical 

 and Space Administration. The estimates 

 shown in Table 5-1 do not include Navy- 

 sponsored research to meet military needs but 

 assume that the Navy will continue and 

 strengthen its present basic research support. 



Technological development is crucial to the 

 success of future research and exploration 

 programs. At present, support for such pro- 

 grams is provided almost exclusively by the 

 Navy ; the Commission believes that the Na- 

 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency 

 should provide major additional funding. 

 Table 5-1 anticipates three categories of de- 

 velopmental expenditures by NOAA : man- 

 in-the-sea techniques, scientific instrumenta- 

 tion, and a National Project for development 

 and construction of long-endurance, 20,000- 

 foot exploration submersibles. In addition, 

 the table includes an estimate for support of 

 the broad base of fundamental technology 

 needed to design systems for operation at 

 great depths. Funds for feasibility studies of 

 such possible future National Projects as 

 deep sea habitats and mobile submerged lab- 

 oratories were included in Chapter 2. 



For the work envisioned by the Commis- 

 sion for development of man-in-sea tech- 

 niques and research instrumentation, ap- 

 proximately $250 million (in addition to the 

 funds for study of the feasibility of future 

 projects) will be required over the next 

 decade. The Deep Exploration Submersible 

 Systems National Project will require a 

 major effort estimated to cost $285 million 

 for the 10-year period. 



Fundamental technology which must be 

 developed to support deep ocean operations 

 includes buoyant materials, power systems, 

 and free-flooding machinery suitable for 

 20,000- foot operations, life support systems, 

 anchoring and mooring devices, and tech- 

 niques for underwater viewing. This tech- 

 nology has many potential applications, and 

 the Commission has reflected a portion of its 

 estimated cost in Chapter 4. The $400 million 

 estimate included in this chapter reflects the 

 need for pressing undersea operating capa- 

 bilities to great depths in order to explore 

 and understand the deep ocean environment. 



The Commission has not attempted to as- 

 sign specific projects and costs to the Decade 

 of Ocean Exploration. This task remains to 

 be accomplished by those responsible for 

 planning the U.S. contributions to the Dec- 

 ade. It feels, however, that expenditures 

 provided in these estimates will be adequate 

 to carry out the proba;ble U.S. commitment to 

 this program. 



The expenditures recommended by the 

 Commission to advance a system for global 

 environmental monitoring and prediction are 

 assigned to three categories: immediate im- 

 provements, buoy development, and system 

 component development and test. The funds 

 to carry out the research required to support 

 this program have been included in the re- 

 search and exploration entries of Table 5-1. 



The Commission has stated that it is pos- 

 sible to achieve immediate improvements in 

 environmental monitoring and prediction 

 with existing technology and at relatively 

 modest costs. The estimated costs of such im- 

 provements, dra^vn largely from existing 

 agency plans, would be $115 million ; most of 

 this amount should be expended during the 

 first half of the coming decade. Costs have 

 not been included in the table for the general 

 development and improvement of national 



