The Earth is 70% water, yet mankind has never traveled to the planet’s deepest point, and has encountered only around 10% of what lives down there. New submersible technology is about to change that.

‘‘I’d like to be, under the sea, in an octopus’s garden, in the shade…” Child-orientated Ringo song this may have been, but along with ‘Yellow Submarine’ and the films by renowned ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, it inspired a generation of people to dream about exploring the depths of our oceans. Even further back, people interested in science and science fiction have been inspired to think about ocean exploration by classic stories like Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

So what has happened? Aside from the popular pursuits of beach swimming and scuba diving, few people spend time in or under the waters of our oceans and seas.

We have little idea what wonders will be encountered by deepwater explorers. But chances are some of it won’t be pretty. Take this beastie, the Sloane’s Viperfish, or Chauliodus sloani, from the Australian Museum Fish Collection. The sides of the body are covered with hexagonal pigmented areas, each with one or more small light-producing organs. The photo above taken by Stuart Humphries (© Australian Museum) shows how extraordinary creatures well below the surface of oceans can look like.

I write short articles as well as long feature “explainer” articles on topics including: Google Android Smartphones and Tablets, National Broadband Network (NBN), Space, Civil & Military Aviation, Ebooks and the Publishing Industry, Electric cars, Technology augmenting human capabilities etc for Geare Magazine. The editor of GEARE has kindly permitted me to post articles here after the magazine issue the article was printed in has passed its shelf life. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Where No One Has Gone Before

According to the US Geological Survey about 70% of the Earth’s surface is watercovered, and the oceans hold about 96.5% of all Earth’s water.

Humans spend billions of dollars ever year on space exploration but only a tiny fraction of that on exploring the vast expanses of oceans, especially the ‘hidden’ depths. As an example, the surface of Mars is mapped to a resolution of a few metres, but there are vast expanses of Earth’s ocean floor which are totally unknown.

“When you go down a few hundred feet, you’re looking at a piece of the planet no humans seen ever before – that is captivating for every human on the planet, even if they don’t think they’re an explorer,” says Graham Hawkes, one of the world’s foremost designers of submersibles.” Once you’re down there it’s incredibly compelling to keep going.”

Hawkes began his career as a mechanical engineer in the UK and US Armed Forces, working on torpedos and submarines. He noticed how little underwater craft had evolved compared with their counterparts in the space and aviation industry. He now has a company, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, that has the capability to build “Deepflight” underwater craft to go down to the deepest depths of the sea – places where humans have never been able to venture before.

It’s a wondrous world down there, but a challenging one for designers, he told the BBC in a recent interview.

“The very bottom, as best we know, is about 36,000 feet (10,973 metres), at a pressure of 16,000 PSI which is enormous and terrifying,” says Hawkes. “So if we took a sphere, which is the best geometry to resist that pressure, and take titanium which is the lightest, strongest metal we have, that will only get you halfway. So we need new materials and different geometries and it has to be really lightweight or the budget won’t work.”

As an engineer and designer famous for “getting things done”, Hawkes is wary of government investments in his research and development. So he approached ultra-rich entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson and Steve Fossett to finance his projects, and this funding has been intermittent. When Fossett unexpectedly died in an aircraft accident in 2007 it threw Hawkes’ plans into chaos.

But just recently, Hawkes announced that DeepFlight submersibles have been built for billionaire Richard Branson and venture capitalist Tom Perkins (who had stepped up to the plate to replace Fossett’s involvement). Perkins plans a multi-year expedition beginning with dives with the “big animals” of the South Pacific.

Virgin Territory

Branson’s new non-profit company Virgin Oceanic has plans to conduct scientific research and to expand our knowledge of the unique conditions, ecosystems, and geology that exist at the bottom of the oceans, in conjunction with scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of Southern California, the University of Hawaii and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

It plans five initial dives (see map above) to the:

• deepest spot on the planet, Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench (11034 metres);
• Atlantic Ocean’s Puerto Rico Trench (8380 metres);
• Indian Ocean’s Diamantina Trench (8047 metres);
• Southern Ocean’s South Sandwich Trench (7235 metres);
• and the Arctic Ocean’s Molloy Deep (5607 metres).

In making his Virgin Oceanic announcement Branson made the point about exploring our own planet clearly:

“What if I were to tell you about a planet, inhabited by intelligent beings that had, in the 21st century, physically explored 0% of its deepest points and mapped only 3% of its oceans by unmanned craft, when 70% of that planet’s surface was made up of water. Then I tried to convince you that only 10% of the life forms inhabiting that unknown world are known to those on the surface. You’d think I’d fallen asleep watching the latest sci-fi blockbuster… Then you discover that planet is Earth…”

This article was originally published in GEARE Magazine issue #66. It is “digitally reprinted” here with permission from the editor. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

I just visited an excellent special exhibition about Robert Falcon Scott’s Last Expedition at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). This free exhibition is open from 17 June – 16 October 2011 and it’s well worth making a trip to the ANMM located in Darling Harbour, Sydney and taking an hour or two to explore it in detail.

I’ve always been interested in explorers and traveling to remote places, which is where the name of this web site “Road Less Travelled” comes from.

Thanks to my interest in history I was already aware of some facts about the ill fated Scott expedition to Terra Nova and had been thinking about it because of the allusion to the famous quote “just going outside and may be some time” in my 2011 Jon Kudelka calendar.

Photo Highlights Slideshow – Robert Falcon Scott’s Last Expedition – Australian National Maritime Museum special exhibition

One hundred years after its tragic end, the definitive story of British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica is being told in this major international exhibition.

Scott’s Last Expedition reunites the artefacts used by Scott and his team together with scientific specimens collected during the 1910-1913 expedition for the first time since their use in Antarctica. When Scott set off on his second journey to explore the Antarctic on board the former whaler Terra Nova, he could not have predicted the tragic ending. He and his four companions died on the return trek from the South Pole two years later, having lost the race to be the first.

To commemorate the centenary of the expedition and celebrate its achievements the Natural History Museum, London, the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand and the Antarctic Heritage Trust, New Zealand, have collaborated to create this international travelling exhibition. The premier venue for this unique exhibition is the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, New South Wales.
- ANMM website

Australia is a land of parrots. They live across the country in a variety of climates and over 2 dozen of them by my count are shown in this excellent Australia Land of Parrots documentary narrated by famous actor Colin Friels, co-produced by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and PBS TV in the USA.

The aerial shots of giant flocks flying across the dusty red heart of Australia’s outback, descending onto the edge of water sources and wheeling across the deep blue sky were nothing less than brilliant. Since I’ve traveled through many parts of the Australian Outback I recognised the scenery around several areas featured such as Rainbow Valley, Chambers Pillar and the Macdonnell Ranges.

Australia Land of Parrots was filmed in high definition which means if you watch it on Bluray you’ll be able to see the parrots as the director intended with “exquisite detail and very saturated and beautiful colours”. Since ABC Shop charges the same amount for the DVD or Bluray if you have a Bluray player the optimal choice is obvious.

I love to take photos of birds (see example photos above/below) so watching the documentary made me wish I too could spend months traveling across Australia with a camera and long zoom lens to photograph them with.

According to the AFI:

“When Australia Land of the Parrots was broadcast on the ABC in May, it was a ratings winner. 1.2 million viewers tuned in to the wildlife documentary – a number that actually beat the Logies broadcast that Sunday night.”

This isn’t surprising when you consider that the raucous cries and striking plumage of parrots like Rainbow Lorikeets, Cockatoos, Corellas and Galahs are familiar and welcome sounds and sights to people living in Australian cities.

David Parer and Elizabeth Parer Cook who are credited as the documentary’s producers were also the principal cameraman and sound-recordist respectively. They’ve had their documentaries broadcast by the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery. In all their films have won over 120 Australian and international awards for program achievement, cinematography, sound and editing

On a sad note Australia: Land of Parrots is the last documentary to be made by the ABC’s in-house Natural History Unit, which was responsible for the ABC’s nature documentary output from the 1970’s until 2008. During this time it won many awards in Australia and Overseas.

David Parer told the AFI:

“Well, the NHU was closed down in September 2008 and now the ABC is concentrating its documentary output on the independent filmmakers around Australia. Natural History programs are being bought from independent producers in Australia. So it’s a change of direction. There’s pressure – they’re trying to do a lot more with basically the same ABC budget. It’s part of that whole move to actually outsource a lot more of the TV production to the independent sector”

You can buy Australia Land of Parrots on DVD or Bluray from ABC Shops or any DVD/Bluray store. The Single disk includes the main 52min documentary which was shown on TV as well as 56min of Extra Features.

I was asked by Adventure Wild – Kimberleys, Western Australia outback tour operators and Tourism WA to take photos and videos for them of the Northern remote Kimberleys area.

I will upload my initial selection of photos to my Flickr Photo Sharing account when I have the chance every few days (mobile internet access is not available in most of the Kimberleys area due to its remoteness and low population).

A slideshow of these Kimberleys Western Australia Roadtrip photos can be seen below:

Staircase To The Moon – Broome

Geikie Gorge, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Bungle Bungles, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Night Sky Star Photos with no Light Pollution

Slingair Bungle Bungles helicopter scenic flight – Kimberleys, Western Australia

Amalia Gorge – El Questro Station, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Emma Gorge – El Questro Station, Kimberleys, Western Australia

El Questro Gorge – El Questro Station, Kimberleys, Western Australia

El Questro Station, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Dragonflies

Bird Watching at Parry Lagoons Nature Reserve – Kimberleys, Western Australia

Ants

Triple J Boat Cruise Ord River & Lake Argyle, Kimberley, Western Australia

Wolfe Creek Crater, Kimberleys, Western Australia

Gantheaume Point, Southern end of Cable Beach, Broome – Kimberleys, Western Australia

Broome – Kimberley, Western Australia

Broome Bird Observatory – Kimberley, Western Australia

Combined Photo Slideshow for the Whole Trip

I was asked by Tourism WA and Adventure Wild outback tour operators to take photos and videos for them of the Northern remote Kimberleys area. I will write related articles about the trip for ABC Technology Online, this Road Less Traveled website and several travel technology reviews for GEARE magazine including a Spot Satellite Messenger and Tracker lent to me by GPS OZ.

You can track my trip on the map below during the time I’m on the road in the Kimberleys, Western Australia.

I just got home from seeing the Banff Mountain Film Festival screening at Sydney’s Seymour Centre during its tour of Australia. At a time when there are many “travel/outdoor adventure” shows on TV (several of which are “less than honest”), this is one of those rare film experiences that really can be called marvelous because you know that life can’t get any more real and raw than the footage shown on screen.

Films in this year’s selection included the world’s highest skiable gondola in the military dominated zone of Kashmir, to the underground exploration of secret caves, kayaking off waterfalls, astounding footage of speed climbing up the Eiger north face and the amusing sport of cross country snowboarding and I’m assured that the selection is equally good every year.

PS I just spoke about this topic on 1233 ABC Newcastle Radio Afternoons with Carol Duncan. You can listen to the discussion as an MP3 file (my bit is 1min 45seconds from the start).

Examples from the footage can be seen below and once you’ve been amazed by them make sure you visit the Banff Mountain Film Festival Australian Tour website to join their mailing list and find out when it’s being screened in a city near you so you can buy tickets for you and your adventurer friends.

The Longest Way 1.0 – one year walk/beard grow time lapse

Into Darkness Trailer

The Last Paradise

Ueli Steck – The Swiss Machine

Life Cycles