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A Fiber-Optic Cable To Inner Space
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."
This is why we have the internet: Networked, remote controllable/accessable research.
This project provides multiple layers of input and output--all that can be controlled remotely. This is a science experiment/environment that can be explored and shared by multiple groups of people from anywhere in the world.
Even the radio telescopes are not this advanced; however, it's a similar idea. Groups of sensor inputs that can be fed to groups of people elsewhere.
Will it be expensive? Yes.
However, the amount of data that will be received with minimal impact to the environment will be staggering. Once the system is down and reaches a steady state, it can be repeatly used to gain information--without having to interrupt that system again and again.
Bravo to the Neptune project... this is the way research should be done.
Jacques Cousteau wouldve loved this.
Really? I always thought of Cousteau as someone who loved to be underwater making discoveries. I don't picture him as somebody sitting behind a computer screen doing work.
Thinking of him that way makes him less of a hero... and, err, too much like me.
Davak
I find it interesting that we first choose to go to the moon, and then discover the oceans of or own planet.
I'm sure there is still much in store for us to learn from our own planet, and I feel we've neglected that for too long.
parasight.de
This is why we have the internet: Networked, remote controllable/accessable research.
Except that isn't the reality, is it? The vast majority of computers attached to the internet actually have a person sitting at them. Those that don't (servers etc) still are within easy access of people - I doubt anyone who maintains a web server would like it stuck at the bottom of the ocean and unaccessible when the hard disc drive decides to start playing up.
This is exactly the point I am trying to make - think practical! Is data from the ocean in real time actually much more useful that non-realtime data? i.e. if I have a data-collection experiment attached to a buoy and leave it there for three months then collect it, is that data actually much less useful that data collected in real time? I doubt it. And yet look at the cost implications of collecting the real time data.
Will it be expensive? Yes.
However, the amount of data that will be received with minimal impact to the environment will be staggering.
Two random things that come to mind - the NASA "space pen" and the Russians pencil (yes I know about Snopes blah blah) and - "never underestimate the bandwidth of a pick-up truck travelling cross-country with a trunk full of magnetic tapes". Applies to a boat too.