![]() ![]() Among the 103 oceanographers present was WHOI scientist Allyn Vine. In 1956, the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council convened a symposium in Washington, D.C., to discuss how to study the deep ocean. But it was unwieldy and had no sampling capabilities. Auguste Piccard had built the bathyscaphe Trieste, a windowed sphere suspended under a blimplike structure filled with thousands of gallons of gasoline. Submarines existed, but they did not go so deep and lacked windows. Scientists had little idea what was down there and little access to find out. In the mid-1950s, the deep seafloor was literally a black hole. It inspired the development of new generations of deep-submergence technology and vehicles, as well as generations of future scientists, engineers, and explorers. It discovered unexpected deep-sea life thriving without sunlight, revolutionizing our understanding of where and how life could exist on Earth and other planetary bodies. It revealed seafloor terrain that scientists never imagined. ![]() It helped document the world’s most famous shipwreck. Over its first half century, it responded to national crises, recovered a lost hydrogen bomb and investigated the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Owned by the US Navy and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Alvin was officially commissioned June 5, 1964, in a ceremony attended by hundreds at the WHOI dock. Kennedy committed the nation to the goal of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth”-and five years before we did so-a small stubby white submersible was constructed with the goal of bringing people to the bottom of the ocean and returning them safely to the surface: Alvin. This year marks the 50th anniversary of two of America’s most iconic, cutting-edge vehicles: the Ford Mustang, and another vehicle that was hardly sleek or stylish and didn't have a bold, jazzy name. ![]()
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