98 



MARINE SCIENCE 



Table 9. — Capital and. operating costs for shore facilities for survey work 



[Over and above present level in millions of 1958 dollars] 



E. ENGINEEEING NEEDS FOR OCEAN EXPLORATION 



(1) A vigorous program should be conducted for the development of manned 

 submersibles that can operate down to and on the bottom of most of the ocean : 



(a) An improved bathyscaph, using the best materials and techniques 

 available, should be designed and built immediately. 



(&) Following up the recent commendable ONR action in bringing the 

 bathyscaph Trieste to the United States, it is recommended that funds be 

 made available for a mother ship® together with auxiliary equipment in 

 order to make maximum use of this deep submersible. 



(c) A continuous design and development program should be initiated 

 aimed at building deep and middepth manned vehicles as the need arises 

 and as the state of the art progresses. 



(2) The need for open-ocean manned research platforms which are stable, 

 and which can remain in place so that time studies can be made, seems essen- 

 tial, and the design for such a buoy should be started. 



(3) A major program should be supported aimed at developing and using 

 anchored and drifting buoys for obtaining space and time coverage of ocean 

 characteristics. 



(4) It seems likely that aircraft can be used effectively for some research 

 and surveys on the open ocean, particularly for studies involving the joint 

 problems of oceanography and meteorology. Nearly all laboratories will need 

 single engine planes; several will need twin-engined amphibious planes; some 

 will need f our-engined commercial-'type aircraft. 



(5) Surface icebreakers are of limited value to arctic oceanographic research 

 compared to properly equipped submarines. Efforts should be made to develop 

 a submarine capable of breaking into and out of the ice. 



(6) Instruments should be developed for survey purposes which are more 

 accurate, effective, and trouble free than those now in use. The techniques 

 needed to use them more effectively should be developed. Specialized devices 

 such as loran C, inertial navigation equipment, gravity meters, and stable plat- 

 forms should be made available for research as well as surveys as soon as 

 possible. 



(7) A major program aimed at developing new high-seas engineering tech- 

 niques should be started. Our abilities to handle heavy equipment and to con- 

 duct such operations as drilling and bottom sampling at sea, limit our opera- 

 tions at present. Many of these difficulties would be appreciably lessened 

 given proper effort. We have not included the very important problem of drill- 

 ing to the Mohorovicic discontinuity in our budget because another academy 

 group is studying this problem. 



(8) Machine aids to computation and data storage have much to offer and 

 should be budgeted. 



(9) High pressure facilities to permit controlled physical and biological ex- 

 periments in the laboratory are needed. 



• This is listed in the section on new ships. 



