Scientists bemoan loss of exploration vessel.

• Author: Jean, Grace
• Position: INSIDE Science AND Technology

It has been around for nearly four decades, but it may be one of the Navy's best kept secrets: a small nuclear-powered submarine that has been plying the world's oceans on scientific missions.

One of its latest expeditions was in the Gulf of Mexico, where it helped a group of geologists, biologists and marine archeologists explore one of the nation's 13 protected ocean sanctuaries, the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, 115 miles off the coast of Texas and Louisiana.

They are intent on finding evidence of human habitation dating back to the last Ice Age. At that time the area was above sea level.

"It's really a needle in the haystack, and that's why we're so happy to have the NR-1 [naval research vessel], that can roll along the bottom constantly," said Robert Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration and professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

"We're confident something's out there. The question is, are we going to be able to find it?" he said.

During its weeklong exploration, the 150-foot submarine charted ancient shorelines, hovered above exploding mud volcanoes once thought to be extinct and gathered volumes of data, said Cmdr. Enrique Panlilio, commanding officer of NR-1. Outfitted with sonar equipment, lights and cameras, the submarine and its 11-person crew worked in concert with scientists aboard the Carolyn Chouest, the sub's accompanying commercial surface vessel, which towed a remotely operated vehicle called Argus to sites identified as potential areas for detailed probing.

"The science we conducted and the data we collected will be analyzed by the researchers involved in the projects for a long time to come," wrote Panlilio in an email from aboard the sub.

However, the submarine's days gliding in the ocean depths are coming to an end.

Home-ported in Groton, Conn., the NR-1 is scheduled to be inactivated late next year, Panlilio said. The submarine is reaching the end of its lifespan and by September 2008, it will go into a lengthy inactivation process during which its nuclear reactor will be cut out and shipped to a storage facility in the Northwest, said Phil McGuinn, a spokesman for the Navy's Submarine Force Atlantic.

"NR-1 has made significant contributions to the Navy as well as the scientific research community over its time. We will not have that tool in the future, but we're all working within the constraints of fiscal reality as we move forward," he said.

NR-1 follows in the...