Summary

Description

In collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?s (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration (OE), the Institute for Exploration (IFE) requests funding to undertake a comparative assessment of the archaeological and biological changes that have occurred at the RMS Titanic wreck site between 1985, the year of its discovery, and the present. As a follow-up to the expedition mounted by OE in June 2003, this field program, with Dr. Robert Ballard and colleagues from OE and other institutions, proposes to re-survey the wreck using state-of-the-art imagery and communications equipment and to broadcast the data real-time via their Inner Space technology. This updated research will help to better determine the wreck?s rate of degradation, produce the first ever comprehensive map of the entire wreck site, and actively engage the public with live video and communication links via the Internet. IFE plans to use its tandem ROV team of Argus and Little Hercules to provide an accurate high-definition map of the wreck site with video imagery. The pair was effectively used in NOAA?s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in 2002, where they used high-definition imagery to visually survey more than a dozen wrecks in Lake Huron. IFE will incorporate new methods and technology recently used in their successful Black Sea 2003 Expedition to accurately map the area and coordinate with satellite facilities to transmit the data. Both vehicles will be modified to operate in deep water. In addition, another ROV, Hercules, which was designed explicitly for deep-water archaeological site mapping, can also be modified for biological sampling and precision mapping at the depths of Titanic. Also joining the cruise will be marine biologists, who will continue to conduct rusticle research and bacterial experiments to determine whether or not the current level of microbial activity is the leading cause of the wreck?s degradation. These investigations have proven directly useful to other deep-sea experiments throughout the world, namely marine construction projects and pharmaceutical research.