William Stone | |
|---|---|
| Born | William C. Stone (1952-12-07)December 7, 1952 (age 72) Pennsylvania, US |
| Education | University of Texas at Austin |
| Occupation | CEO ofStone Aerospace |
| Known for | Exploration of deep caves |
William C. Stone (born December 7, 1952) is an Americanengineer,caver andexplorer, known for exploring deepcaves, sometimes withautonomous underwater vehicles. He has participated in over 40 international expeditions and is president and CEO ofStone Aerospace.[1][2]
Stone was born on December 7, 1952, inPennsylvania.[1] He was an active caver in theRensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Outing Club[3] while studying for aB.S. inCivil Engineering, awarded in 1974.[4] In 1976, while studying engineering at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, Stone took part in an expedition to theSistema Huautla inOaxaca,Mexico, where his group set a new penetration depth record of 2,624 feet (800 m).[1]
After obtaining a Ph.D. in engineering, Stone worked at theNational Institute of Standards and Technology inGaithersburg,Maryland from 1980 to 2004.[5] While at the institute, Stone established the Construction Metrology and Automation Group. He led the group for seven years before stepping down to focus on projects at Stone Aerospace.[5][6]
From 1998 to 1999, Stone directed an international group of explorers consisting of over 100 volunteers to participate in the Wakulla 2 Project. Upon securing a permit from the State ofFlorida the expedition began mapping the cave ofWakulla Springs, nearTallahassee, Florida.[7]
Stone was theprincipal investigator for theNASA-fundedDEPTHX project, which produced a highly advancedAUV to explore the world's deepestsinkholes.[8] The success of that project was key in getting funding for theENDURANCE project, with ProfessorPeter Doran of theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago as its principal investigator. ENDURANCE completed two field seasons atLake Bonney in theDry Valleys ofAntarctica in 2008 and 2009. Both projects served as a testing ground for developing a vehicle that can autonomously scour the seas of Jupiter's moonEuropa for signs of microbial life.[9]
Stone's caving expeditions inSistema Huautla inOaxaca,Mexico is chronicled in his book,Beyond the Deep: The Deadly Descent Into the World's Most Treacherous Cave (2002),[10] which he co-authored with Barbara am Ende and Monte Paulsen. Stone also figures prominently in James Tabor's bookBlind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth (2010),[11] which discusses his contribution to extreme caving and summarizes many of Stone's caving expeditions, most notably those to Huautla and Cheve.
In December 1987, Bill Stone became known to the wider diving community when he demonstrated theCis-Lunar MK1 modelrebreather atWakulla Springs,Florida in ascuba dive which lasted 24 hours and used only half of the system's capacity.[12][13][14]
Bill Stone gave a talk atTED 2007 about exploring the world's deepest caves and frontier space travel. In the talk, Stone pledged his devotion to lead a mining expedition to the Moon "to mine ice thought to be trapped on the Moon's southern pole atShackleton Crater, and to sell derived products (includingpropellants and other consumables) on the Moon and inlow Earth orbit (LEO) to international consumers."[15]
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[[Category::21st-century American inventors]]
