RE: To Grav or not to Grav?

G'day,

> [OT, but amusing]
> Vacuuming manganese nodules off of the bottom of the Pacific 
> Ocean was actually a cover story for the CIA plot to recover 
> a sunken soviet ballistic missile sub.  Although the idea was 
> bizarre to the point of being absurd, Howard Hughes
> was spending tens of millions of dollars to construct the 
> Glomar Explorer (for the CIA), people fell for it.
> 
> What a shame that one of the crew talked to much, and blew 
> the whole operation.

Well what started as truly bizarre has become more so as they're
seriously
planning it now!! The sediment outfall problems and its effect on the
surrounding ecosystems is something we've actually got to consider (the
deep
ocean sediment grains around the nodules are very fine and could really
make
a mess of things unless treated carefully). The whole operation isn't
quite
economically viable yet, but within the decade they reckon it'll get the
nod
as a once off strip mining operation (these things take millennia to
grow so
there won't be another big harvest for quite some time!). Its one of the
issues really testing the UN agreements on oceans and their use/access.

On the upside looking into all the deep sea benthos involved has given
me
some REALLY cool ideas for what some alien could look like ;)