New deep-sea observatory goes live(very challenging project. Our academic p...)

Designing and constructing this one-of-a-kind system took over six years of hard work. The environmental review process for the MARS cable alone lasted over two years and cost roughly one million dollars. One of the biggest technical challenges was creating an underwater electrical system that could convert the 10,000 volts of direct current coming through the cable to the much lower voltages required by scientific instruments.

In April 2007, an undersea cable was laid from the observatory site to shore. On February 26, 2008, MBARI engineers and remotely-operated-vehicle pilots installed the central hub and powered up the system. Unfortunately, after only 20 minutes of operation, the plug for the main power-supply began to leak, and the system had to be shut down.

Following this setback, MBARI staff and contractors spent the next eight months repairing and testing the observatory hub. This effort culminated in early November, 2008, when the cable-laying ship IT Intrepid arrived in Monterey Bay and hauled the trawl-resistant frame up to the surface. Working around the clock, technicians on board the ship replaced the failed underwater connector, then lowered the frame back down to the seafloor. On November 10, 2008, the MBARI marine operations group reinstalled the observatory hub and powered the system up. All systems worked perfectly. The MARS observatory had finally become a reality.

One of the first experiments that will be hooked up to the MARS observatory is the FOCE project. Led by MBARI chemist Peter Brewer, this experiment will allow researchers to find out how the increasing acidity of seawater is affecting deep-sea animals. Seawater is becoming more acidic in many parts of the ocean as human-generated carbo
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