Caladan_Oceanic

42

Oh, definitely the stalked ascidian or "sea squirt" that one of the landers filmed in the Indian Ocean. Totally bizarre-looking creature that floated by. They aren't supposed to be a moving species, but there it was. Even had a little "child" (we think) at the base of its stalk. There are pictures of it on the internet now. Totally wild. When we first saw it in the control room, my Chief Scientist and I looked at each other and literally said, "What the hell is that?"

Well, we weren't looking for anything specific. The main mission in 2019 was to technologically prove the performance and durability of the submersible Limiting Factor, and debug some things, which we did. We verified that we built the first, commercially-certified (very safe) full ocean depth, 2-person submersible that can do thousands of dives to any place on the sea floor. We are very proud to have made that technical leap.

I'd have to say a little holothurian - a sea cucumber, which was the first life I saw at the bottom of the Challenger Deep. I was worried that I may not see any visible life, but within 15 minutes, there he was. A transparent, etheral little guy swimming away for me, just looking for his lunch. Here we were, in this brutal environment of 16,000 psi and no light, cold as heck, and this was his home. It was really cool to see him (it?) there.

Probably space, just because of the math. I mean, space includes every possible exoplanet in the universe, many of which could maybe be a bit like Earth. But the bottom of the ocean is under crushing pressure and freezing temperatures. This probably precludes development of a spinal column or cerebral cortex, so I doubt you can get much intelligent life in those conditions. So I would bet on finding it in space. (By the way, I named one of my dogs 'Rasputin' (who has since passed away) - re: your handle)