When The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administation (NOAA) commissioned its new ship this week, it launched the grandest exploration effort this nation has seen since Lewis and Clark.
The crew of the Okeanos Explorer has been ordered to seek out the secrets of the oceans and share them with the nation.
Experts estimate more than 90 percent of the ocean floor is unexplored. They say we have better maps of the surface of Mars than we have of our own oceans.
With assistance from famed explorer Bob Ballard, who found and explored the wreck of the Titanic, the Okeanos Explorer can use camera-equipped, deep-sea robots to map and explore the ocean floor. If they find something interesting, the crew will send the images via satellite to experts in land-based labs.
Why all the excitement?
NOAA scientists explain, the oceans provide the food we eat, the climate we can survive in, the air we breathe.
They say it's high time we got to know what's under the high seas. Watch the video.
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