Alaska’s (Hidden) Frontier

Terrestrial Alaska has been widely explored and economically understood for over a century. While we have a handle on this, we know little about what lies underneath the surface of sounds, seas, gulfs and oceans.

• Provide 650 million people with clean water. The ocean can supply these people the water they need. An abundant supply of clean water strengthens people’s health and prosperity. Building and installing subsea desalination systems in the most needed areas will make up for this shortage.
• Discover medicinal cures from ocean specimens. There is no major effort to discover new cures for the most lethal and debilitating diseases, even though past subsea discoveries have proven to successfully cure diseases. The challenge is finding and collecting approximately 5lbs of the unknown specimen to determine its medicinal viability. Once the organic chemistry is understood from the specimen it can then be infinitely replicated without ever having to collect more of that specimen.
• Clean the five ocean gyres. Most discarded buoyant trash in the ocean is collected within these giant gyres. There is no effective and efficient reclamation method to separate this trash from the oceans. Furthermore, there is an estimated 3 million shipwrecks and chemical dumps on the seafloor needing hazardous material handling and extraction solutions.
• Build an online ocean community with a unique database and a proprietary taxonomy for organizing oceanic data and tailoring it for users as diverse as energy explorers, shipping, commercial fishing, scientists, military and recreational use. (Define “community”: As a resource center for companies, universities, governments, entrepreneurs and scientists currently fractured from one another, while in the same pond.) Replace the fractured model with a deeply interactive data and search tool in real-time. Secure critical information for these entities to make more effective and reliable forecasts.
• Make a detailed map of the ocean floor. The technology is now available to thoroughly map the ocean floor in HD3D. We have little to no idea what our planet looks like underwater or what it’s made of. The goal is to determine the most viable and expeditious way to map the ocean floor in detail, then complete the task.
• Design and manufacture submarines for humans to be transported and functionally interact with the oceans at any depth. The first published prescription for a human occupied submarine was over 435 years ago. After four centuries of development there is still no utilitarian sub that can safely, dependably and economically transport humans through liquid mediums, while providing adequate endurance and tools.
• Design and manufacture disposable autonomous underwater smart vehicles with configurable sizes and interchanging capabilities to handle multiple devices. The vehicle will adaptable to a variety of missions, self-charge and be programmable when submerged.
• Transfer tidal forces into usable energy. Capture this consistent and reliable energy source, providing feasible energy for end-users. Prove apparatus, design it for replication and offer it to markets where tides will cost effectively provide and distribute energy.
• Commercialize emerging opportunities from Arctic ice melting that is opening new ocean territory and changing protein development environments. Assess this rapidly developing opportunity and define the best commercial practices for the Arctic Ocean. Implement policy, technology and services that will be ready for the increase of near future demands.
• Test the limits of engineering capabilities by attempting to build an untethered, full ocean depth haptic humanoid diver. Modern-day haptic systems have limitations because of the restraining tether. The goal is to remove the tether, allowing for full operating freedom at any depth.