From Science Fair To Inventor

It was the moment of truth and all systems were go, but the star of the show was nowhere to be found. About 2,000 museum officials, teachers and technicians were tuned to test a $$7 million satellite hookup to an exploration ship anchored for Sciencefair Projects. But when it was time for the Jason to take center stage, all that was left of the robot whose predecessor first scavenged the sunken Titanic was a severed cable.

The disappearance occurred as engineers at Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. in Atlanta were coordinating with control centers at more than 10 science museums around the nation and in Canada. During the next two weeks, 250,000 students are scheduled to watch live transmissions as the robot explores the ruins of a Roman ship wrecked off Italy in A.D. 300 as part of Sciencefair Projects.

Dr. Robert D. Ballard's crew was lowering Jason and its 8,000-pound mobile garage, Argo, 2,100 feet to the sea floor. The audio signal was scratchy, but suddenly rubber-booted marine biologists began scratching their heads and conferring just out of the camera's view. The frayed cable came up and the crew looked on, first shocked and then increasingly pale: Jason and Argo were gone.

Within an hour, Ballard - the sea explorer who in 1985 claimed the international limelight with his role in locating the Titanic - was talking live by satellite to concerned colleagues and sponsors back in North America.

"We've had a burp," he said, shifting slightly in his shipside chair 3,000 miles away. "The cable separated and we dropped the vehicle. We have to go down and pick it up but we know pretty well where it is." Paul Fontaine of Boston's Museum of Science stood, eyes glued to one of the three huge video screens set up for the project.

"I guess if you've got to find something lost in 2,000 feet of water, who could be better prepared than the man who found the Titanic?" he said. "They won't have any problem finding Jason.

Ballard sat, legs crossed and clearly comfortable in the satellite spotlight, reassuring his audience and chatting with technicians in Atlanta as they checked the hookups between his ship's control room and each of the participating museums.

"We got more excitement today than we had hoped for but we'll get them back," he said. "It'll cost us time, but we should get the vehicle back up on deck, wipe off the mud and be back in business in about 24 hours."

Ballard said Jason was "still snug in its garage" after the million-dollar, state-of-the-art exploration team fell at 4 mph into a soft, silty sea bed thousands of feet below the surface.