Our Deepest Dreams: Why Do We Prioritize Space Over the Mysteries of the Ocean?

The ocean and outer space are the two ideological end points in exploration, so naturally they share some of the same goals and technology. Deep-sea submersibles are built to withstand cold temperatures and high pressures as well as the corrosive effects of salt water. Once on their journeys, they perform routine tasks again and again, with little or no opportunity for repairs. Extraterrestrial rovers and spacecraft endure similarly extreme conditions and are dispatched on lifelong journeys to the ends of the universe, never to be seen by humans again. Astronauts and aquanauts train for their epic adventures in similar ways too. At NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, Texas, astronauts practise spacewalking in a mock-up of the International Space Station submerged at the bottom of a mammoth pool. 

 

Only the elite can afford to pay for such activities, so the fields share another overlap in terms of who gets to do the exploring. Until recently, that meant the highest achievers in the military and scientific worlds. But after decades of neoliberal capitalism, hobbled government agencies, and the wealthiest people and corporations paying little to no tax, the richest people in the world can now launch private exploration companies that rival the US government’s. For now, the clients for deep-sea and space travel are other ultrarich patrons or government agencies, such as NASA contracting SpaceX to carry astronauts to the ISS. But the spacefaring entrepreneur Elon Musk—at one point the richest man in the world, whose car company, Tesla, paid zero federal income tax in 2021—dreams of a day when the masses can afford a trip to Mars. Of course, everyone would be better served by less flashy ambitions, such as a sustainable future here on planet Earth. 

 

The two fields also share the hunt for extreme life that thrives in severe conditions found in the deep sea and on faraway planets. At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, there’s a whole department devoted to exploring the overlaps between life at the bottom of the sea and on other “ocean worlds”: moons with water, such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus. Marine scientists have learned to hitch their research to outer space to boost funding, and NASA has done the same, expanding and promoting its earth science research as the environmental movement has grown and pushed for public money to be put to use on this planet.

 

 

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