The Explorers Page #3

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It was as daring a feat

as the early space walks

Back in 1970,

it was uncommon for women

to do some of the sorts

of things

that I found myself

hankering to do

There were no women

astronauts going to the moon

In fact, there were no women

astronauts at all

at that point in time

And aquanauts were also

an iffy sort of enterprise

Earle was one of five women

selected to join a team

of aquanauts

who lived and studied in

an underwater laboratory

anchored in the Caribbean

They called us aquabelles,

they called us aquababes

They had a hard time

calling us aquanauts

I didn't care what they

called us

as long as they let us go,

and they did

Earle has never let

anything stop her

Her passion for the ocean

is too strong

For me the lure of the deep

is the lure of the unknown

It's that curiosity that

all children have

but scientists never

lose

you just have to know

what is going on

In order to satisfy that

curiosity

Earle, like so many

explorers

is at the mercy of

technology

For years, she has teamed up with

engineer Graham Hawkes. Together,

they have helped revolutionize

underwater exploration

You know, it's said that

there're more footprints

on the moon than

in the deep ocean

That's kind of literally

true

Once you step foot

in the oceans

you are just back where

early man was

you're back looking at

a piece of the planet no

one's seen before

When Earle and Hawkes

conceived of deep flight

a new fast-moving submarine

they had to build it

themselves

There is no NASA of the

deep seas

You know, I was born to be

an engineer looking back

I grew up with

the nickname professor

I apparently was always

taking things apart

Numerous rockets,

numerous experiments,

numerous little explosions

My parents were both

from London

My father was postman

And the small part of

London Tootting

the wrong side of the

railway tracks

went to the wrong schools

Hawkes was the first in

his family to go to college

Over the past 20 years

he has become

one of the leading

inventors of submersibles

Hawkes's and Earle's dream

is to literally swim with

the fish

It's the counterpart

of flying

you fly into that other

atmosphere

There's this moment of discovery

that this is not

just water

this is water filled

with life

There are jellies,

there are fish,

there are eyes all around

There you go as an explorer

not alone for a moment...

not even for an instant

are you alone

Oh, my God, it's coming

right at me

Oh, my gosh

Oh!? Just so close.

He was just beautiful

Funded in part by the

National Geographic Society

Earle is now diving in

a remarkable new machine

It is the tool

for the next generation of

deep sea exploration

In July of 1969,

four simple words

expand forever the limits

of human potential

The eagle has landed

The calmness of the voice

masks the terror of

the moment

Neil Armstrong and

Buzz Aldrin

have only seconds of fuel

left

when they land on the moon

Armstrong's pulse races

at 156 beats per minute

That's one small step

for man,

one giant leap for mankind

The triumph seemed complete

but landing was

the easier part

NASA couldn't guarantee

the safe return

of the astronauts

President Richard Nixon

had prepared a eulogy

in case the men were

stranded on the moon's

surface

It read, in part:

"These brave men know that

there is no hope for their

recovery

But they also know that

there is hope for mankind

in their sacrifice."

Our greatest achievements

are often balanced on

the edge of catastrophe

For 20 years, Robert Peary

and his expedition partner

Matthew Henson,

had been risking their lives

to walk to the North Pole

On the fourth expedition

temperatures dropped to

minus 63 degrees

They were forced to eat

their dogs for food

But the men relentlessly

advanced and

on April 6, 1909,

they became the first to

stand at the top of the world

"The Pole at last,

Peary wrote in his journal

"The prize of three centuries

Mine at last."

As much as Peary and Henson

dreamed of the North Pole

and Armstrong the moon

explorers have dreamed of

climbing the world's

highest mountain

For decades, the slopes of

Everest had claimed

the life of one climber

after another

Then, in 1953...

Mount Everest has been

conquered by members

of the British expedition

...Tenzing Norgay and

Edmund Hillary

overcame the cold and

the thin air to stand on

the summit of Everest

No one else will ever

be able to claim the title:

"First to the roof of

the world."

The drive to explore

endures

But have today's explorers

been born too late?

I'd love to have been an

explorer in an earlier era

where I could have been

the first man to cross

the Congo

or the first man

to penetrate

the heart of Australia

or climb Everest

It would have been

wonderful

Exploration a century ago

was about assigning names

to places

and I think it's become

more about assigning meaning

You really have to push

yourself to the edge

That's why it hasn't been

done before

I mean, if it was easy,

it would have been done

before

An explorer is someone

who pursues the epic journey

a person who has a dream

who prepares to fulfill

that dream

assembles a team, goes out

into the ocean

overcomes the tests of

the mind and the heart

attains the truth and

returns to society to

share the truth

That's the epic journey

and that's what

the explorer does

Deep sea explorer,

Bob Ballard

has spent a career in search

of tragedy and disaster

For years, he longed to

find the Titanic

It was the most elegant

luxury liner of its time

Titanic was built to last

forever

On April 10, 1912, she set sail on

her maiden voyage

Five days later

she disappeared into

the cold waters

of the North Atlantic

More than 1,500 perished

People believed the ship

was gone forever

and that Ballard's quest

to find her was futile

But he proved them wrong

In 13,000 feet of water,

Ballard found the Titanic

He made history come to life

People could see the past

floating before them

a romantic era stolen away

by an iceberg and now

returned

I don't go to sea

unless I am really

convinced I can succeed

I have decided not to do

a lot of expeditions

People say,

"Why don't you find Amelia

Earhart's airplane?"

Fat chance.

I won't take on a job unless

I have a good shot at it

Ballard did not stop with

the Titanic

He found the Nazi battleship Bismarck...

...explored the torpedoed

luxury liner Lusitania...

Contact. That's a ship

It's definitely you

My only love

...and located

the aircraft carrier Yorktown

sunk in the World

War II battle of Midway

I have little boys come up

to me

and say they wish I would

stop exploring

because there isn't going

to be anything left for them

And I try to remind them

that I've only seen

one-tenth

of one percent of

the deep ocean

so there's plenty there

This time, Ballard is

exploring further back

in time than he has ever

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