In the Early 2000's, a perfect storm of public interest brewed. James Cameron's Titanic (1997) introduced the ship to a new generation of enthusiasts. In 2001, Cameron returned to Titanic and filmed his IMAX documentary
Ghosts of the Abyss which fanned the flames of public interest. The ship became a global fascination, which made a convincing argument to invest in expeditions to the site. Public interest provides funding opportunities after all, and the advertising revenue from TV documentaries often helped make back the expenses.
During this golden age of Titanic exploration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched 3 expeditions in 2002, 2003, and 2004. These expeditions brought back photomosaics of the wreck site, surveyed the deterioration of the ship and helped provide better understanding of the "rusticles" that have developed on the wreck. In the late 1998, four IPSCO Test Platforms were deployed at the wreck site for later recovery. These platforms contained test strips of steels used in maritime construction, with each sample being represented as clean as well as damaged in various ways. During the 2003 expedition, These IPSCO Test Platforms were recovered and taken back to the surface for further examination, providing new insight into the bacterial organisms that make up the rusticles and the rate at which they are breaking Titanic down. Microbiologist Lori Johnston was involved in the 2003 expedition to support this effort, and her voice can be heard in the cockpit audio of the submersibles in certain parts of the 2003 footage in this archive.
The early 2000's expeditions remain some of the most in depth explorations of Titanic's wreck site, only being surpassed by the 2010 NOAA Survey expedition. To this day, however, there has never been a more comprehensive exploration by a manned expedition to the site.