Is anybody listening?

Globalizing communications ::

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) held the first conversation from the deep ocean to the edge of space.

The world got a little smaller Friday as NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and a marine biologist aboard the deep-sea submersible Alvin dropped a dime and made the first inner to outer, interspace call from earth orbit to ocean floor.

The feat, some say is prelude to improved technologies for communication between land based systems and research teams working on any platfrom, no matter how remote, is a next crucial step in man"s inevitable exploration of the environment.

WHOI marine biologist Tim Shank, diving in the Alvin submersible, compare notes on life, science, and exploration with NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams as she orbited 250 miles above the surface on the International Space Station.

Backdropped 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)

Built as the world's first deep-ocean submersible, Alvin 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).

Greener Special Feature:: Part of a new series on "Globalization"

Keywords::NASA WHOI ALVIN ISS COMMUNICATION