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Sea Floor - Surface - Satellite - Shore
slambo writes: "Wondering how research is conducted on the ocean floor? One of the methods, as described by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is to put sensors on the sea floor that transmit the data through a cable to a buoy that then bounces the data through a satellite to the land station. They have an overview on their website. The main advantage of this setup is near real-time monitoring of activities on the sea floor."
Like... um... little crabbies walking along? Now we'll um... know when those crabbies move 3 feet to the left! Imagine the advancement of science! And... um... we could incorporate the star wars defense system to ah... catch lobsters! Yeah! Why, there hasn't been such a huge advance in lobster catching technology since the lobster cage!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Now before anyone misinterprets my words to mean "ocean dumping of nuclear waste" or says something nonsensical like "what if it 'comes up' in a volcano somewhere else", recall that ALL of the Earth's current internal heat is generated by the natural radioactive elements present in the Earth (see: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/env99/env087 .htm).
And since most radioactive elements are heavy, they tend to sink and not come back up. Those that do reemerge to the surface are diffused across the globe and are indistinguishable from natural radioactivity.
Support subduction zone dumping of nuclear waste now! Write your legislators! Get funding allocated to research this at your local University. It *is* a good idea. And far better than anything else yet conceived of what to do with the waste.
"Why not just quit making the waste? You overlook world energy shortages."
Pressure. On the surface of the Earth, it is about 15 psi. Going into orbit requires a pressure vessel that doesn't need to maintain a differential any more than that (15psi vs 0 psi). In the water, pressure increases by 1 atmosphere for every 33 feet of depth. Since the average depth of the ocean is 4,000 meters, any sub-surface vehicle suited for deep-sea research must maintain a pressure differential on the order of 5500 psi at 4,000 meters. That is one heck of an engineering problem.
Coming home. For space exploration, we have largely solved the problem of re-entry into the atmosphere. But the same pressure differentials mentioned above present problems returning to the surface from the deep ocean. If subjected to more than 3 atmospheres of pressure, humans are limited in the amount of time they can spend in that environment before requiring decompression. In addition, submarines can only ascend or descend so fast before the rate of change of pressure begins having adverse effects on the vehicle. In submarines, pressure vessel failures tend to be catastrophic and fatal (ever hear of USS Thresher?).
There are other problems, but those are two of the biggest. Solving them requires a lot of money, time, and energy (undersea propulsion being another big challenge). It's not as easy as it first seems.