After the ship is commissioned in Seattle August 13th, the ship and crew will undergo field tests off the U.S. West Coast to train operators and test concepts of operations and equipment associated with the ship and its sensors and systems. All this leads to the ship’s first full field season of operations in 2009, and a new way of exploring the ocean.

Unlike many other ocean expeditions supported by NOAA, missions on this ship will have most of the scientists remaining ashore. Via telepresence, live images from the seafloor and other science data will flow over satellite and high-speed Internet pathways to scientists standing watches in any of five Exploration Command Centers ashore. Those scientists, and others on call if a discovery is made at sea, will add their expertise to missions no matter where in the world the ship is located.

This telepresence-enabled ship will also stream seafloor images and interviews from sea over standard Internet connections to bring the excitement of ocean exploration and discoveries live into classrooms, newsrooms, and living rooms, helping to raise ocean literacy among stakeholders, increasing their ability to make informed decisions about important ocean issues. The use of telepresence for exploring the ocean was pioneered by Dr. Robert Ballard and his Institute for Exploration.

Missions of the ship include mapping, site characterization, reconnaissance, education and outreach. Reconnaissance is searching an unknown area for an interesting anomaly and stopping the ship to investigate in greater detail, using all ship systems to focus on a specific target with high discovery potential. Additionally, the ship will conduct regular water column exploration to improve characterizations of water mass properties at sites both when searching for anomalies and when transiting through poorly known deep water areas.