New deep-sea observatory goes live(econd of data. Most of the cable is buri...)

Over the next few months, a variety of scientific instruments will be hooked up to the observatory using underwater "extension cords." These will include instruments to monitor earthquakes and to capture deep-sea animals on video. Researchers will also be testing an experiment to study the effects of ocean acidification on seafloor animals. MBARI technicians will use remotely operated vehicles (robot submarines) to plug these instruments into the central hub. After the instruments are hooked up, researchers will be able to run experiments and study deep-sea data and images from anywhere in the world.

Researchers whose experiments are hooked up to the MARS observatory will no longer have to worry about their instruments' batteries wearing out, because their experiments will get all of their electrical power from shore. Even better, researchers won't have to wait for weeks or months to recover their instruments and find out how the experiments turned out. They will be able to look at data and video from the deep sea in real time, 24 hours a day. This will allow researchers will to know immediately if their experiments are working or not.

Providing a place for researchers to test their deep-sea instruments is one of the primary goals of the MARS observatory. Many instruments will be tested on MARS before being hooked up to other deep-sea observatories offshore of the U. S. and other countries.

Funded in 2002 by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the MARS Observatory was constructed through a collaborative effort by MBARI, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, L-3 Communications MariPro, and Alcatel-Lucent. Each group was responsible for preparing a different part of the observatory. According to Keith Raybould, the MARS project manager, "MARS was a
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