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A Fiber-Optic Cable To Inner Space

Posted by timothy on from the send-down-more-divers dept.

tetraconz writes "The University of Washington has been working on a vast 3000km undersea network to research the ocean floor off the West Coast. From the executive summary: (PDF) "The goal of NEPTUNE is to establish a coherent system of high-speed, submarine communication-control links using fiber-optic cables to connect remote, interactive experimental sites with land-based research laboratories and classrooms." This is an important project to explore the last unknown region of the Earth: the ocean. Check out the project homepage."

5 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. It's about time by distro+stu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This project is absolutely fantastic. We're finally beginning to systematically explore the ocean and the ocean floor. The implications here for technology, environmental studies, education, and research in all sorts of different arenas is staggering. I can't wait to see some of the results once this is up and running. Jacques Cousteau wouldve loved this.

  2. Leave the ocean alone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The ocean is one of the few places in the world we humans haven't terrorised yet. I'd hate to see it go down the tube (so to speak) for corporate interests.

    If humans learnt to leave things alone, the world would be a better place.

    1. Re:Leave the ocean alone? by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oooooh we've terrorized the ocean good.. Whaling industry, fishing industry, oil spills, sewage wastes from the main land running from our rivers and streams. Yes there's plenty of things we've done to hurt the ocean environment w/out even going there.

      I wouldn't be suprised if there was radioactive waste at the bottom of the sea somewhere. And this is off the top of my head w/out even looking.

      Ever hear of E-waste? The electronics other nations get because they're outdated and only valuable for the minerals in their parts? Imagine all the polution thats been reported from it getting in to the water supply over there. Now realize that their water flows to the ocean eventually. More terrorization of the worlds oceans. All this probebly isn't even the tip of the ice berg so to speak.

      --
      ~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
  3. Sensible? by pubjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This looks like an awfully expensive project.

    Although I love technology, I always prefer to take a sceptical view when considering it's application. I often ask my clients, "if you didn't have a computer/network/whatever, how would you do this?" I find computer technology often blurs people's clarity of thinking, and if you say "how would you do this without a computer?" they see more clearly exactly what the issues are.

    It may be that this is a very sensible project. However, it may also be that the cost of setting up this network might be better deployed focusing on the actual experiments themselves. My own view is that when it comes to the biological sciences, there's nothing quite like physically being there, so I'd prefer to see money spent on making dive trips easier/safer/less expensive.

    Having said all of that, often this type of big project actually has multiple objectives. I can see lots of military uses for a big undersea network.

    1. Re:Sensible? by Obfuscant · · Score: 2, Insightful
      So, the original poster is saying the problems with diving should be addressed.

      Little of deep-sea oceanography is done with divers. They are too expensive and too fragile.

      Most of the measurements of the deep-sea are done with cable controlled submersible vehicles, instruments towed behind boats on long cables, or submerged buoys.

      Submerged buoys are dropped from boats which leave them in place for six months to a year. They come back and send an acoustic signal that is supposed to trigger a release and the data is supposed to float back to the surface. IF the release hasn't failed, if the boat is in the right place, if they can find it when it pops up, etc. NEPTUNE removes this problem because the data doesn't have to pop back to the surface, it is already on shore.

      And yes, real-time is important. If you want to study something you've seen in the current-style buoy data, you have to design a new instrument, have money left in your ship-ops budget to hire time on a boat, drop that instrument, and then hope it comes back alive -- in six to twelve months. NEPTUNE is a major improvement in this process.