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Interviews: Ask Robert Ballard About Ocean Exploration
samzenpus writes A former Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, Robert Ballard is one of the most famous ocean explorers in the world. He is best known for his discoveries of hydrothermal vents, the Titanic, and the German battleship the Bismarck. Ballard is the "Explorer-in-Residence" for the National Geographic Society. He works extensively on exploration through telepresence capabilities and distance learning programs including the JASON Project, which reaches more than 1 million students. His latest work involves the Ocean Exploration Trust, the organization that manages his exploration ship the E/V Nautilus. The ship carries with it two ROVs named Hercules and Argus that explore the seafloor in real-time online. Dr. Ballard has just concluded the 2014 season and has agreed to answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.
Would you explain how easy or hard the search for Malaysia Airlines (MH) #93 must be?
I've always imagined fleets of tiny, relatively inexpensive autonomous vehicles exploring the oceans, sending their data back to be aggregated and mapped. Are there any projects of this sort happening?
12:50 - press return.
First, thank you for taking time to answer our questions and for the amazing work you have done both as an explorer and an author! My favorite book of yours to date is The Discovery of the Bismarck.
I have two questions:
What is the most interesting underwater engineering problem you've had to solve in your career?
What are the unsolved underwater engineering problems that you think are most important?
First off, I have to thank you for finding the Titanic about two months after I did a junior high school report on the Titanic. That just about blew my mind and helped encourage a fascination with science and technology that continues to this day.
My question though is about the USS Scorpion. As one of very few people who has seen the remains of the USS Scorpion, is there anything you can share about what might have caused her to sink?
Thank you from a longtime member of NGS. Your work has always been a positive counterbalance to some of the "what were they thinking?" projects the Society has funded.
In the 1950's and 1960's, considerable funding and human cost led to a realization of the dreams of science fiction writers who imagined people in outer space. Humankind has not yet achieved all of those dreams, but even far-flung ideas like teleportation are increasingly within our grasp as we learn more about the hidden universe that we are part of.
At the same time science fiction authors were writing about outer space, several of the same envisioned detailed human exploration and colonization of the oceans of inner space. Could you please comment on why you believe humankind has yet to make an equally bold move into the oceans? Thank you and Godspeed on your next adventure.
Loved the show you hosted a number of years about about the development and implementation of the SOSUS system. Can you speculate or comment on the types of next generation technologies that could potentially fill in some of the gaps we now have with the reduction in traditional SOSUS effectiveness against quiet(er) ships from other nations? Presumably we still have to keep track of other countries missile and attack subs, is that much harder now than in the past?
Thanks!
Dr. Ballard, Growing up I watched you on the epilouge segments of SeaQuest DSV. My question for you is this; How long do you think it will before we actually start colonizing the ocean the way SeaQuest DSV depicts? Is there anything we can do to get the process moving? Thanks, A Long Time Fan
"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~Me
Interesting game, Professor Falken. It seems the only winning move is not to play.
Mostly random stuff.