Earth’s Oceans – a lot still remains a mystery
The Earth is home to vast ocean waters, yet most of it still remains unexplored.
But that’s not stopping scientists and researchers from exploring the unknown of the aquatic frontier.
NPR’s Regina Barber and Emily Kwong, hosts of the Short Wave podcast, explored Earth’s oceans through a special podcast series this summer, Short Wave: Sea Camp. Kwong said that one of the most interesting things she discovered was learning how many animals and organic molecules are a part of the carbon cycle.
“It just makes me feel so connected, you know, to them and to life on Earth,” said Kwong. “So, I loved learning more about the carbon cycle and how it works with stabilizing the planet.”
The sunlit zone covers roughly the top 200 meters of the ocean, where phytoplankton create oxygen and several marine invertebrates live.
Below that lies much of what remains a mystery. With intense high pressures and a vast underwater terrain, only about 25% of the sea floor is mapped. Even with technology and special equipment, it is still a challenge today for scientists to go into deeper areas of the ocean’s depths.
“I think it's a combination of, you know, research priorities, but also just the job of understanding the ocean is immense,” said Kwong. “And even in our own lifetimes, we probably won't fully understand all of it. So, I think it's a question of scale. It's just that big, and we have no idea how many species are down there.”
The duo finds parallels between the exploration of the deepest parts of the oceans with the cosmos. With both a large majority of the ocean and space being unexplored, continued research in the ocean could help broaden further understanding of space as well.
“When we're talking about these hydrothermal vents, these points in our ocean where no life exists except for in these little hot pockets, we think that that might exist in some of the moons of Jupiter,” said Barber. “I think it's really essential that we are, you know, studying these oceans, studying anything that might exist on another planet or another moon of another planet.”
How Trump’s space policy could impact commercial space
The Trump administration is making changes to the country’s space exploration priorities, which could have an impact on the commercial space industry.
The administration has made several budget requests that could cut funding for NASA, which could force some science missions to shut down, regardless of how much money was put into the programs.
Main Engine Cutoff’s Anthony Colangelo explained that there have been a few noticeable changes within the commercial space industry to navigate these funding challenges – moving from science to defense.
“So, you've seen a lot of pivoting from space companies into the defense world, and whether that's following the market or they realize how useful their assets are over in the military side, that has been a big shift that we've been seeing,” said Colangelo.
That includes SpaceX, which has found a place for some of its tech, like Starlink, for the military. “SpaceX has been so successful, and they have such a source of revenue in Starlink, they are achieving escape velocity from national politics,” said Colangelo. “And so, you know, are they as dependent on NASA policy as they were when they were young. No, not anymore, right? They have the ability to go out and fund gargantuan programs like the starship program themselves or Starlink itself.”
In terms of other missions like those centering around Starship and Artemis, there is still lots to be done.
“So, everything they had set out for them to do in 2025 they haven't made any progress on and that's just pushed them farther and farther behind,” Colangelo explained about starship. “As not only do they need to actually do those tasks, they need to figure out what keeps going wrong each time they have a flight or a test incident.”
It may not be the best year for space funding, but companies are trying to stay hopeful to be able to continue their space exploration missions in the future.
