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10 Discovery 01 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE EXTRAS Read the article to check. b Forget space travel. The ocean is our final frontier Beneath the surface of the sea lie untold mysteries and oppor- tunities by Frank Pope It seems we can’t get off the planet fast enough. Two thirds of NASA’s annual budget is devoted to manned space exploration, and that figure will grow with the USA’s decision to send a man to Mars in 2037. We’ve seen all there is to see on Earth, right? Wrong. The final frontier is here, beneath the surface of the sea.  Heading down into the ocean, human limits are quickly reached. At 200 metres, the water is as black as a moonless night. Most nuclear submarines would implode before they reach 1 km down. At 3 km – still less than the average depth of the ocean – there’s a good chance that you’ll discover a species completely new to science. The deepest- diving whales go no further. At the verybottom,more than11km down, lie the Challenger Deeps. Twelve humans have walked on the moon. None has set foot in the Deeps, and only two have seen them with their own eyes.  Yet things live down there. Big things. Microphones throughout the sea listen for enemy sub- marines, but no one has ex- plained the undersea roar that occasionally startles listeners. The sound appears biological in origin, and its wavelength suggests that it is produced by an animal bigger than a blue whale, the largest creature known on the planet.  In the late 1990s, a deep-sea submersible was dropped in the Southern Ocean, and passing 4,000 metres – well beyond the diving depth of any whale – it detected something enormous passing beneath it. Surprised? Don’t be. The ocean covers 70% of the planet’s surface and we’ve investigated less than 5% of it. We know more about the dark side of the moon than about the bottom of the sea.  One reason that we explore space is to find evidence of other life forms. The search for extraterrestrial life is important, but robots can look beneath the dry rocks of Mars better than humans. The idea of landing on an alien world to greet alien life is fantasy. For the real thing, I suggest heading down in a deep- diving research submarine.  Satellites and unmanned space probes allow us to look at our planet with a global perspective and stare into the history of the universe. They’re absolutely vital for doing ocean research too, but they can’t look under the sea, the only place where we can search for clues to the origin of life itself. To do that, we need ships and submersibles, manned and robotic.The cost of fuel-intensive marine expeditions is rising, but the results would benefit all our lives. Understanding the oceans will give us access to new sources of food, drugs and energy.  It’s now more than 50 years since explorers Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh made their pioneering descent into the Challenger Deeps. After that, the focus of our imagination turned to the heavens, but perhaps it’s time to begin a new era of sea exploration. Manned exploration of space is science fiction. The adventure of the deep sea is science fact. Read again and then talk together. In the writer’s opinion: 1 what are the benefits of space exploration? 2   what are the benefits of deep-sea exploration? Talk together. Give your opinions. 1 Why is so much money spent on exploring space? Is this justified? 2 If you could travel into the deep sea or into space, which would you choose? Why? a 5 b Which words and expressions in the box can you use to complete sentences 1–3? 1 Satellites … to look at our planet with a global perspective. 2 They’re absolutely … for doing ocean research too. 3 The cost of marine expeditions is rising, but the results would … all our lives. LanGUaGE FOCUS 6 Describing benefits allow us  benefit  crucial  give us the ability essential  improve  vital  enable us have a positive effect on  be of (considerable) benefit to They’re absolutely vital for … Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv