Go deep, see stars

“I was just a guy tied to a rope,” said Navy diver Daniel P. Jackson after being the first diver to reach 2,000’ deep.

“At 2,000 feet, I had topside turn off all the lights, and it was like a star show. The phosphorescence that was naturally in the water and in most of the sea life down there started to glow," Jackson said. "When I started to travel back up, all the lights looked like a shower of stars going down… It was the best ride in the world.”

The ocean at its deepest is about 36,000’; I guess there are plenty of places left to explore. Read the Navy’s coverage of the dive here. The group discussion is also worth a visit. There are some nice debates on the necessity of having a human go to such great depths instead of robots.

I’m all for it. Sometimes our quests for new horizons may not result in direct scientific advances, but the research and development of the projects do. Think Tang, the Space Pen, and astronaut ice cream. What would we have to stuff in our Christmas Stockings if not for the space program?

A big thanks to my buddy Stinger, a fellow narc-o-holic, for emailing me this news release.