$7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE to Image Features, Map Floor

Summary: NOAA joins in co-sponsoring the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE to as many as 13 top-scoring teams to image features and map the sea floor by 2018.

NOAA's side scan sonar for sea floor mapping: NOAA, Public Domain, via NOAA News

XPRIZE Foundation anticipates awarding the $7 million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE by 2018, according to announcements Dec. 14, 2015, at the 48th American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting in San Francisco, California.

The competition brings to worldwide attention the unknown 70 percent of the Blue Marble since scientific explorations and knowledge of Earth’s oceans remain sparse and sporadic. XPRIZE Foundation’s website considers that “We know more about the surface of Mars and the surface of the Moon than we know about our ocean floor.” Holding the competition and identifying the winner demands that XPRIZE Foundation share resources and responsibilities with an agency, corporation or foundation marine-oriented in experience and expertise.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Shell emerge as XPRIZE co-sponsors.

Ceremonies in December 2018 follow registrations by September 2016, technical documentation by December 2016 and two-round testing in August and September 2017 and in September 2018.

Twenty-five teams go after NOAA’s milestone prize of $1 million and Shell’s bonus and first-place prizes each of $1 million and grand prize of $4 million. The milestone honors 10 top-scoring high-definition digital imagists and sea-floor mappers whereas the bonus rewards tracking biological or chemical signatures to ocean features or placed objects. Top prizes identify bathymetric maps and high-definition archaeological, biological, geological feature images of 500 square-kilometer (193.05 square-mile) areas from sea floors through water columns to surfaces.

The $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE juxtaposes environmentalism with emission-free, nuclear-free sources.

Round one keeps each team within 100 square-kilometer (38.61 square-mile) areas at a 2,000-meter (6,561.68-foot) depth for minimum 5.0-meter (16.40-foot) horizontal and 0.5-meter (1.64-foot) vertical resolutions.

Round two leads teams through 250 square-kilometer (96.53 square-mile) areas at 4,000-meter (13,123.36-foot) depths to identify 10 features, twice that in round one, at identical resolutions. Features for imaging, in addition to placed objects, may be archaeological (such as shipwrecks), biological (such as mobile animals) or geologic (such as seamounts or volcanoes). Deep-sea corals, hydrothermal vents and simulated biological entities (such as whale fall with whale scent) number among sources to be tracked from biological or chemical signals.

Each team obtains one-third of total scoring from imaging and two-thirds from mapping.

Teams stationed on shore pay registrations of $2,000 before June 30, 2016, and $5,000 before Sept. 30, 2016, in order to launch and recover unpeopled systems. Systems, technologies and vehicles qualify as eligible if all data-gathering components fit within a 2.44-meter- (8-foot-) wide by 2.59-meter- (8-foot-6-inch-) high by 12.19-meter- (40-foot-) long standard intermodal shipping container.

The competition reiterates commitments during XPRIZE’s keynote address at the AGU to chart the unmapped 95 percent of ocean floors, improve rescue searches and sustain resources.

AGU co-attendees Peter H. Diamandis of XPRIZE and David Schewitz of Shell second and third the observation by Richard Spinrad of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that “We don’t know where [the] next Malaysian Airlines crash will be.”

XPRIZE Foundation anticipates awarding prizes at ceremonies in December 2018: XPRIZE @xprize via Twitter Dec. 16, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

NOAA's side scan sonar for sea floor mapping: NOAA, Public Domain, via NOAA News @ http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2730.htm

XPRIZE Foundation anticipates awarding prizes at ceremonies in December 2018: XPRIZE @xprize via Twitter Dec. 16, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/xprize/status/677141205465956352

For further information:

Bloom, Jonathan. 14 December 2015. “XPRIZE Partners with Shell to Offer $7 Million to Team That Advances Ocean Exploration.” ABC 7 News > Science.
Available @ http://abc7news.com/science/xprize-to-offer-$7-million-to-team-that-advances-ocean-exploration/1122938/

“Draft Competition Guidelines.” XPRIZE > Ocean Discovery.
Available @ http://oceandiscovery.xprize.org/sites/default/files/shell_ocean_discovery_xprize_draft_guidelines_v1.pdf

Fingas, Jon. 14 December 2015. “Xprize Offers $7 Million for Exploring the Ocean Floor.” Engadget > Science > Robots.
Available @ http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/14/xprize-ocean-discovery/

Griggs, Mary Beth. 14 December 2015. “7-Million-Dollar XPRIZE Will Encourage Deep Ocean Exploration.” Popular Science > Environment
Available @ http://www.popsci.com/new-7-million-dollar-ocean-exploration-xprize-announced-today

John, Rihanna. 15 December 2015. “XPRIZE, Shell Sponsored, NOAA Offers $7M for Ocean Exploration.” Gracious Column > Science & Nature.
Available @ http://www.graciouscolumn.com/xprize-shell-sponsored-noaa-offers-7m-for-ocean-exploration/24673/

Kemsley, Jyllian. 15 December 2015. “XPrize to Award $7 Million for Ocean Floor Exploration.” Chemical & Engineering News > Science & Technology.
Available @ http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/web/2015/12/XPrize-Award-7-Million-Ocean.html

“New $7 Million XPRIZE Competition Seeks to Usher in a New Era of Ocean Exploration.” Business Wire > Dec. 14, 2015.
Available @ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151214005447/en/7-Million-XPRIZE-Competition-Seeks-Usher-Era

NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. 14 December 2015. “XPRIZE Announces $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery Competition to Advance Ocean Technologies for Rapid and Unmanned Ocean Exploration.” Ocean Explorer > About > What We Do > OER Updates.
Available @ http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/about/what-we-do/oer-updates/2015/xprize-121415.html

Omedo, Charles I. 15 December 2015. “Shell and NOAA Launch $7 Million XPRIZE Reward for Ocean Discovery.” I4U News > Science > Latest Science News.
Available @ http://www.i4u.com/2015/12/101076/shell-and-noaa-launch-7-million-xprize-reward-ocean-discovery

Palermo, Elizabeth. 15 December 2015. “New X Prize Challenge: Map Ocean Floor.” Live Science > Tech.
Available @ http://www.livescience.com/53104-xprize-ocean-discovery-announced.html

XPRIZE @xprize. 16 December 2015. "The @Shell Ocean Discovery @XPRIZE challenges teams to explore the least explored part of our planet. Deep Ocean." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/xprize/status/677141205465956352