Ben Hellwarth: The Other Final Frontier on the Ocean Floor

THE United States has been out of the space shuttle business for a few months now, but the country is still seriously considering spending billions of dollars to send astronauts back to the moon, to Mars or to a nearby asteroid.

It’s heartening that the pioneering spirit behind crewed missions into outer space has not been dampened by the nation’s tide of red ink. But with price tags like $50 billion to return astronauts to the moon in the next decade, there’s a strong bang-for-the-buck argument to be made for far less expensive missions headed in the other direction: down into the ocean depths, which remain largely unexplored and unseen by human eyes.

The nation’s limited experience with undersea missions has nonetheless shown the great potential for scientific and technological advances and valuable spinoffs that come when public investments are made in bold exploratory ventures.

In 1969, an accidental death helped sink the United States Navy’s Sealab program. A diver’s breathing gear apparently malfunctioned in the dark cold just outside the lab, an astounding 610 feet below the surface. It was a sobering reminder of the inherent risks of making prolonged deep dives. The risks include not only the bends — the painful and potentially lethal consequence of surfacing too rapidly — but also breathing exotic gas mixtures (ordinary air becomes toxic beyond certain depths and pressures) and exposure to the frigid temperatures of the deep sea. Conditions underwater can be every bit as hostile as in space....