What's new in exploration

	Vol. 225 No. 5
PERRY A. FISCHER, EDITOR

Project NEPTUNE update. The earth sciences are clearly beginning a shift, away from the spectacular, headline-grabbing intermittent expeditions that go boldly where no man has gone before, to sustained, in situ experiments that explore natural systems over time to achieve much greater understanding. This shift arises from two simple facts: we've been most places, and the complexity that has been discovered leaves us with more questions than answers.

NEPTUNE is a joint US/Canada venture to create the world's first large-scale long-term deepwater scientific observatory. Linked by 2,000 mi of cabled optical fibers and power lines, it will deploy a network of instruments at 30 to 50 experimental sites, established at nodes along the cable, with sensor networks between nodes. It will include multipurpose robotic underwater vehicles that will reside at depth, recharge at nodes, and respond to events such as submarine volcanic eruptions.

The network will cover about 80,000 sq mi, at depths up to 10,000 ft, on the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate offshore British Columbia, Oregon and Washington, with likely extensions further into the sub-arctic and sub-tropical gyres.

NEPTUNE is a bold and ambitious plan to better understand the 60% of our planet covered by deep oceans. While not a large plate, Juan de Fuca is an epitome of the global plate tectonic system, with ridge crest spreading and hydrothermal processes, faulting and subduction, all represented in a relatively small and accessible area.

The instruments will comprise a full complement of real-time seismic, pressure, temperature, flow (from vents) and video, with Internet access for researchers, teachers and students. It will also have command-and-control capabilities for certain users. The network will provide unprecedented multidisciplinary measurements at scales from microns to miles and at time scales from microseconds to decades.

The project is led by the University of Victoria in Canada (leading a consortium of 12 Canadian universities) and the University of Washington in the US. This international partnership also involves other major institutions, including Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), and the Institute for Pacific Ocean Science and Technology (Canada).

The total cost of constructing, installing and operating the NEPTUNE network is estimated at US $250 million for the first five years. More than $25 million for the US portion of NEPTUNE has come from several US institutions. US partners will soon apply for another $150 million in grants. Last fall, Canada finalized the funding of US$46.4 million for its portion of the project. Thus far, there has been no direct funding from any oilfield-related company – odd, in that this extraordinary project will result in knowledge and technology applicable to our industry.

Image courtesy of the NEPTUNE Project and CEV, Univ. of Washington.

I first reported on this project in this column in Nov, 2000, and it's good to see that it's moving forward. The observatory system should be operational by 2007, and is expected to have a lifetime of 30 years or more. Certain test-bed systems will be operational this year. Last summer, a workshop was held on linkage and data sharing between the Ocean Observatories Initiative, of which NEPTUNE is a prime part, and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. A workshop was just held in May 3 – 5 this year in Victoria, with future workshops planned for late September and late November 2004. Additional information is at: www.neptunecanada.com. and www.neptune.washington.edu.

In addition, though funded separately, there are two related projects: VENUS (www.venus.uvic.ca) and MARS (www.mbari.org/mars). These projects will serve as proof-of-concept sites for cabled observatories such as NEPTUNE, and will include scientific experiments. VENUS, led by the University of Victoria, will be a shallow-water test bed for NEPTUNE. Linked by 44 mi of fiber optic cable, it will provide continuous biological, oceanographic and geological data from three locations off the southern British Columbia coast. MARS will be a deepwater test bed for NEPTUNE. It is now under development by MBARI and will involve 39 mi of cable in a deep canyon in Monterey Bay, California.

Balloon communications. This item is not purely exploration related, per se. And although I don't usually offer free advertising, occasionally there comes a technology that is so radically different that I just have to mention it. This should get some sort of award for thinking outside the box – way outside.

For all of our technology, there's still vast areas of the world where the only communication option is satellite. Even in the US, some 90% of the country is outside of two-way radio and cell phone communication. It would take thousands of radio towers to fill in the remote-area blanks, and this would not be profitable on a per subscriber basis. But Space Data Corp. had the almost goofy idea to use weather balloons as a substitute for towers. They cruise at about 100,000 ft. Less than a hundred of these, put up about twice a day, could cover the entire US.

The system utilizes existing technology, such as that used for cell phones and pagers for telemetry and communications. The company was able to secure FCC licenses and became operational last month. Where did it start? The West Texas, Permian basin region, focusing on oilfield applications. Few places are more remote or have greater need.