William Stone (caver) facts for kids

William C. Stone (born December 7, 1952) is an American engineer, caver, and explorer. He is famous for exploring very deep caves, sometimes using special underwater robots called autonomous underwater vehicles. He has been on more than 40 expeditions around the world. He is also the head of a company called Stone Aerospace.

About William Stone

William Stone was born on December 7, 1952, in Pennsylvania. When he was a student, he loved exploring caves. He was part of the Outing Club at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1974, he earned a degree in Civil Engineering.

In 1976, while studying engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Stone joined an expedition to a huge cave system. This was the Sistema Huautla in Oaxaca, Mexico. His group set a new record for how deep they went into a cave. They reached an amazing 2,624 feet (800 meters) deep!

After getting his advanced engineering degree, Stone worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This was in Gaithersburg, Maryland, from 1980 to 2004. He started a group there that focused on construction and automation. He led this group for seven years. Then, he decided to spend more time on projects at his own company, Stone Aerospace.

Exploring Wakulla Springs

From 1998 to 1999, Stone led a big international team of over 100 volunteers. This project was called Wakulla 2. After getting permission from the State of Florida, the team began mapping the cave at Wakulla Springs. This cave is near Tallahassee, Florida.

Robots for Deep Exploration

Stone was the main scientist for the NASA-funded DEPTHX project. This project created a very advanced underwater robot. This robot was designed to explore the world's deepest sinkholes. The DEPTHX project was very successful. Its success helped get funding for another project called ENDURANCE.

Professor Peter Doran from the University of Illinois at Chicago led the ENDURANCE project. This project completed two field seasons at Lake Bonney in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. This happened in 2008 and 2009. Both DEPTHX and ENDURANCE were like test runs. They helped develop a robot that could explore the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa. The goal is to search for signs of tiny life forms there.

Books About His Adventures

William Stone's cave expeditions in Sistema Huautla in Oaxaca, Mexico, are written about in his book. It's called Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent Into the World's Most Treacherous Cave (2002). He wrote this book with Barbara am Ende and Monte Paulsen. Stone is also a big part of James Tabor's book Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth (2010). This book talks about his important work in extreme caving. It also tells about many of his cave expeditions, especially those to Huautla and Cheve.

The MK1 Rebreather

In December 1987, Bill Stone became well-known in the diving world. He showed off a special diving device called the Cis-Lunar MK1 model rebreather. This happened at Wakulla Springs, Florida. He used it for a scuba dive that lasted 24 hours. Even after such a long time, he had only used half of the system's air capacity!

TED Talk Appearance

Bill Stone gave a talk at TED 2007. He spoke about exploring the world's deepest caves. He also talked about future space travel. In his talk, Stone promised to lead a mining expedition to the Moon. The idea is to mine ice that is believed to be trapped at the Moon's southern pole. This ice is thought to be in a place called Shackleton Crater. He plans to sell products made from this ice. These products, like rocket fuel, could be sold on the Moon and in orbit around Earth to international customers.

See also

• Shackleton Energy Company[[Category::21st-century American inventors]]