Last May Associate Professor David Gruber was named to the National Geographic Society’s 2014 elite class of Emerging Explorers, an international program recognizing 14 adventurers, scientists, and innovators at the forefront of discovery and global problem solving. Each received a $10,000 award and was featured in the June issue of National Geographic magazine.
But Gruber wasn’t home to receive his copy of the magazine in the mail. In June he began training off the coast of New England in the latest gear for oceanographic exploration, the Exosuit (Gruber and suit shown above).
The Exosuit, which weighs 530 pounds and resembles a spacesuit, is an atmospheric diving system that enables scientists to explore the ocean to unprecedented depths, up to 1,000 feet. Among the suit’s properties are delivery of up to 50 hours of oxygen, water-jet thrusters for propulsion, powerful LED lights, a fiber-optic tether for two-way communication and a live video feed, and 18 rotary joints and two manipulators (hands) customized for the study, collection, and recording of marine life.
“In the suit, we can interact with, experience, and examine the unique and foreign creatures of the deep sea. It is rare to have the opportunity to join them in their own living room,” says Gruber, an American Museum of Natural History research associate and expert in bioluminescent and biofluorescent marine animals.
—Diane Harrigan