1. Monterey Accelerated Research System
MARS:
Monterey Accelerated Research System

2. What Is MARS? The Undersea Cable Observatory
Allows scientists to monitor their instruments in real time 
Connects equipment to a power supply
Sends data instantaneously to researchers' computers

3. Components
1. Underwater Cable
2. Science Node

4. The Science Node Trawl-Resistant Frame Yellow flotation block
Yellow flotation block
Two titanium cylinders

5. Experiments Eye-In-The-Sea ALOHA Mooring Seafloor Seismometer
ALOHA Mooring
Seafloor Seismometer
Benthic Rover
Deep Sea Environmental Sample Processor

6. Eye-In-The-Sea
Sensitive camera that records bioluminescent sea creatures
Uses only red light for illumination
Lures animals into visibility

7. ALOHA Mooring Buoy, half-mile long cable, vertical profiler
Other instruments can be attached to float
Constantly measures salinity, temperature, oxygen, and backscatter in water column 

8. Seafloor Seismometer Part of 880 seismometer network
Sits West of San Gregorio Fault, monitors Pacific plate
Gathers valuable information about the earth's interior

9. Benthic Rover Mobile lab that charts deep-sea carbon cycles
Measures oxygen levels in sediment
Can function up to a year

10. Deep-Sea Environmental
Sample Processor
Robotic DNA lab that tests for new life forms
Contains all the chemicals, computers, and containers of a full-size laboratory
Has to deal with the cold and extreme pressure of the deep sea

11. History
MBARI put team together: University of Washington, NASA, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
NSA approved grant in September 2002
First Obstacle: drilling permits
Second Obstacle: the medium voltage power system
Finally put together on site in February 2008
Power connector on TRF failed after 20 minutes
Fully operational November 2008

12. The Future: Deep Sea Testbeds