nine_k
> the fossil record in this area comprises both extant and
extinct deep-diving beaked whales. Isotopic dating shows
that whale falls in this region have occurred since at
least 5.3 million years agoSo this look less like an
organized cemetery, and more like Mt Everest, also
littered by bones of the less fortunate adventurers.
|
Palomides
funny that this summary is paywalled but the actual
article is open
accesshttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10546-z
|
jtfrench
I feel like maybe we've needed an "OceanX" before a
"SpaceX".
|
> car
Hey, Gabe Newell might be your man here. But it's not
for
profit.https://luxurylaunches.com/transport/gabe-newel
l-explorer-ve...https://www.forbes.com/sites/deajusufi
/2026/06/13/gabe-newel...
|
> nine_k
SpaceX serves a large market that was underserved, via
Starlink, and via satellite launches.There's nothing
comparably easy (for some values of "easy") to
monetize underwater, except in shallow places like the
continental shelves, and these areas are already being
heavily developed (oil, wind).There are many, many
wonders deep underwater, but they are mostly not
commercially interesting, alas.
|
> fsckboy
>I feel like maybe we've needed an "OceanX" before a
"SpaceX"SpaceX is based on the idea that our planet
will someday be uninhabitable, so we need to be ready
to colonize other planets. The sooner we start, the
sooner we get there.OceanX might be fun science, but
it's not going to save us.
|
> AlotOfReading
That's what OceanGate of imploding submarine fame was
trying to be.
|
> dbish
I've always wanted to start a company that builds
automated underwater swarms of "probes" that just
search and return info and carry out small exploration
tasks but over long amounts of time and space.Do it
right and you can send the first underwater explorers
to Europa.Hard to find the right way to monetize in
the early stages though. SpaceX had a variety of
options.
|
> > defrost
> Hard to find the right way to monetize in the
early stages though.Fugro got a tonne of money for
sidescan surveys of large areas north of this
Diamantina fracture zone up to the equator ..
looking for traces of the lost Malaysia Airlines
Flight 370. The search for the missing aircraft
became the most expensive search in the history of
aviation. It focused initially on the South China
Sea and Andaman Sea, before a novel analysis of
the aircraft's automated communications with an
Inmarsat satellite indicated that the plane had
travelled far southward over the southern Indian
Ocean.
After a three-year search across 120,000 km2
(46,000 sq mi) of ocean failed to locate the
aircraft, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre
heading the operation suspended its activities in
January 2017. A second search launched in January
2018 by private contractor Ocean Infinity also
ended without success after six months.
~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Fl
ight_370
|
> > > nine_k
(The sacrifice to Cthulhu has been accepted,
so nothing remains.)
|
> > theendisney
Sounds good.Make several modular probes and give
them fancy names.Have various support classes like
signal relay, charge stations, camera cleaning,
resque etcSell rent lease the vehicles to
customers who get to pilot them in vr.Create a
simulator where one can explore some already
explored areas with the probes projected in real
time. Create a market for map chunks.I think it
will make one hell of a game.Roberts Space
Industries Legatus bundle costs $48,000 USD and
you only get pixels.If you can have your own
exploration submarine without having to deal with
all the boring logistcs yourself people will
gladly pay many times that and hire other players
to do ingame jobs like keeping the signal alive.If
you can build the mothership with investors and
crowdsourcing then maintain it with subscription
fees and insurance policies it would be hilarious
even before anyone finds anything interesting.
|
> > irishcoffee
I actually work in this space. The difficulties of
long-running underwater probes should not be
discounted. Comms bandwidth without a tether is...
quite slow. Dealing with even the tiniest drops of
water inside the system is... a real problem. Salt
water is also quite a problem. Deploy and retrieve
is a real problem.I won't say I think outer space
is easier, but the problem space is very
different.
|
> > Avicebron
Well if you ever find a monetization path this is
what I wanted to do for years. I don't know where
Schmidt landed in the court of public opinion but
I appreciate that the Schmidt Ocean Institute is a
thing. I just wish these things didn't reek of
billionaire vanity.
|
> > > defrost
The zone this whale necropolis has been found
within is named after the Australian Navy
hydrographic, meteorological and oceanographic
research vessel that first coarsely mapped
this deepest part of the Indian ocean in 1960,
during my father's time of service
onboard.Mind you, if you go the service path
you might end up scrubbing toilets or close
sampling atomic bomb sites ... so your mileage
(and lifespan) may vary.
|