He is two miles under water; she is 200 miles up in the atmosphere. They both work in small, confined spaces, looking out onto vast, unpopulated expanses. He is out of the reach of sunlight, buried under a blanket of perpetual darkness; she sees the Sun rise 15 times a day…if she has any time to look for it. Both are explorers of the last frontiers.<\/p>\n
WHOI marine biologist\u00a0Tim Shank<\/a>, diving in the\u00a0Alvin<\/em>\u00a0submersible, will compare notes on life, science, and exploration with NASA astronaut\u00a0Sunita “Suni” Williams<\/a>\u00a0as she orbits on the International Space Station. And you can be a part of that conversation: Students, educators, and science lovers submitted questions for Tim and Suni to answer on the air and the web. Visit the\u00a0\u00a0Questions and Answers<\/a>\u00a0page to read replies, which should be available by January 29.<\/p>\n To learn more about the oceanographic expedition to East Pacific Rise, 500 miles off the coast of Mexico, visit the\u00a0Student Explorer at Sea (SEAS)\u00a0program, which provides updates from the research team, lessons for students and teachers, and gee-whiz facts about life and work at sea. The expedition is funded by the National Science Foundation as part of its\u00a0Ridge2000\u00a0research initiative. You can also learn more about deep-sea research at\u00a0Venture Deep Ocean.<\/p>\n To follow the activities of astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleagues as they continue the construction of the space station and carry out science experiments on plants, materials, and themselves, read her online\u00a0journal<\/a>, which is updated several times per month.<\/p>\n For a map of the location of\u00a0Alvin<\/em>\u00a0and its tender ship\u00a0Atlantis<\/em>, click\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0 To see the current location of the International Space Station, click\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0 To learn how to view the ISS in the skies above your town, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t From the Seafloor to the Space Station Listen to the first call between ocean explorers and astronauts Join us for a rare conversation between two people on the edges of human exploration, as the\u00a0Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution\u00a0(WHOI) and the\u00a0National Aeronautics and Space Administration\u00a0(NASA) hold the first conversation from the deep ocean to the edge of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Major Support for\u00a0Alvin<\/em>,\u00a0Atlantis<\/em>, and the International Space Station are provided by<\/h3>\n\n
With additional support from<\/h3>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
![\"Alvin\"](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/87\/2019\/07\/v44n1-alvin-intro1en_12472_36562_37309.jpg\" "\\"v44n1-alvin-intro1en_12472_36562_37309\\"")
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tBuilt as the world’s first deep-ocean submersible, Alvin<\/em> has made more than 4,200 dives and can reach 63 percent of the global ocean floor (reaching depths of 14,764 feet\/4,500 meters). (Mark Spear, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t![\"the](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/87\/2019\/07\/iss_550_37311.jpg\" "\\"iss_550_37311\\"")
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tBackdropped by the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon, the International Space Station is shown shortly after it separated from space shuttle Discovery on December 20, 2006. (Courtesy of NASA)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t![\"Bilogist](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/87\/2019\/07\/shank_alvin2_550_38055.jpg\" "\\"shank_alvin2_550_38055\\"")
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tBilogist Tim Shank climbing in submersible Alvin<\/em>. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t![\"Astronaut](\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/seafloortospacestation\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/87\/2019\/07\/suni_iss_550_37135.jpg\" "\\"suni_iss_550_37135\\"")
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tAstronaut Sunita L. Williams, Expedition 14 flight engineer, pauses to smile for the camera as she looks over procedures checklists in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station. (Courtesy of NASA)\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"