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E. Engineering Heeds for Ocean Exploration* 



During the past two years laany more people in govern- 

 ment, industry, and oceanographic laboratories have become 

 av;are of the need for, and the feasibility of better oceano- 

 graphic instrumeiits. Some new instrument programs have 

 been initiated, and better instruments are in the discussion 

 stage. 



In some small areas progress is as good as recommended 

 but on the v;hole, progress has been only about half of our 

 earlier recommendations. There has been a serious lack of 

 funding for feasibility studies of advanced design instru- 

 ments and vehicles and for building prototypes of production 

 instruments. The fact remains that it is generally harder 

 to obt.-iin a small amount of m.oney for preliminary design 

 studies for new devices and ships than it is to find large 

 sums for construction based on eiristing types or hurry-up 

 designs v^7ith only marginal improvements. Funding procedures 

 must include more money earmarked specifically for studies 

 of advanced devic.js which sliov/ prondso of greatly improving 

 our ability to do research or conduct surveys. 



S uj:\Tey rcnstrument s 



During the past year it has become apparent that 

 survey instruments can be built which will permit much 

 better surveys to be made than were practical even to con- 

 sider a year ago. One example is that through the TR/uTSIT 

 navigation satellite of the U, S. space program, accurate 

 ncnriga:-.ion ovor _all oceans and in all v/eather may be avail- 

 able much sooner than v;e had dared hope, A second example 

 is that it now appears feasible to build echo sounders that 

 provide a three-dimensional picture of the bottom over a 

 wide path on each side of the ship instead of producing 

 only a single line of soundings underneath. Such an echo 

 soLinder should revolutionize the ability of a ship to ex- 

 plore, survey and chart bottom features. 



Standardization and prompt production are required of 

 many of the instruments commonly used for basic research 

 and survey. Examples of such instruments ares winches 



"Comments in this Section apply to our Chapters 1 and 7 

 and to the programs of the Navy, ilSF, AEC and the BCP. 



