The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station was designed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a seafloor research station—or underwater habitat

Underwater habitat

Underwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping...

. It was designed by NASA Aquanaut

Aquanaut

An Aquanaut is any individual who remains underwater, exposed to the ambient pressure, long enough to come into equilibrium with his or her breathing media. Usually this is done in an underwater habitat on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to...

, Dennis Chamberland

Dennis Chamberland

Dennis Chamberland is an American bioengineer, explorer, and author.-Career:Dennis Chamberland, an aquanaut and Mission Commander for seven NASA underwater missions, designed and built the Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station underwater habitat...

 and Marine Engineer, Joseph M. Bishop and named in honor of the Mercury project astronaut and SEALAB (US Navy) aquanaut M. Scott Carpenter. It was used on two missions in the summer of 1997 and 1998 on the seafloor near Key Largo

Key Largo

Key Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...

, Florida at the Marine Resources Development Foundation http://mrdf.org.

Specificity

The Scott Carpenter Station was the only habitat ever designed to be launched from a wheeled trailer, much like a boat. This design feature enabled it to be transported to schools and other venues for touring and educational outreach between missions. The education and outreach function was one of its primary features, and figured importantly in its missions. Many classroom to seafloor connections were made, including links to schools in Oklahoma, Florida, California and north of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

 in Canada’s Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay

Baffin Bay , located between Baffin Island and the southwest coast of Greenland, is a marginal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea...

 such as Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Pond Inlet is a small, predominantly Inuit community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada and is located at the top of Baffin Island. As of the 2006 census the population was 1,315, an increase of 7.8% from the 2001 census making it the largest of the four hamlets above the 72nd parallel...

.

Timeline

In 1997, the Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station became one of four existing seafloor habitats operational in the world. During the summers of 1997 and 1998, all four of the world's operational habitats were located within 15 nautical miles (28 km) of each other, and three of them were within 50 feet (15.2 m) of one another in Key Largo: The Scott Carpenter Station, The MarineLab Research Station http://www.mrdf.org/mul.htm and the undersea hotel—the Jules Undersea Lodge http://www.jul.com. The fourth habitat, the Aquarius (laboratory)

Aquarius (laboratory)

The NOAA Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, adjacent to Conch Reef. It is one of the few underwater research facilities in the world dedicated to science...

 habitat was located just offshore near Key Largo inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields...

.

Mission One - 1997

The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station’s first mission was launched in September 1997. This mission included a shakedown and full functional test of its design and engineering systems. It also included a visit by NASA Astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

, Dr. Bob Phillips as well as links to schools and classrooms. The link schedule also included linkage with a NASA team of investigators in isolation at the Johnson Space Center where they were testing long term, advanced life support systems. Onboard the Scott Carpenter Station, investigators also tested space life support systems for growth of plants in remote and extreme environments.

Mission Two - 1998

After the success of Mission One, the station was outfitted for an expanded mission during the following summer in what was known as the NASA Challenge Mission http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/space/challenge. The Challenge Mission ran concurrently with the Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

 Mission STS-95

STS-95

STS-95 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998. It was the 25th flight of Discovery and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the Space Shuttle program in April 1981. It was a highly publicized mission due to former Project Mercury...

, the mission which featured veteran astronaut John Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...

. At the launch of the Space Shuttle, the Scott Carpenter Station Mission Commander, Dennis Chamberland and his crew embarked for an unbroken 11 day stay on the seafloor for the same period the Space Shuttle was in space. Following the flight, visitors to the seafloor station included motion picture director James Cameron

James Cameron

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...

, who conferenced with students in Pond Inlet, Nunavut via satellite phone, as well as producer Eugene Roddenberry II and Mount Everest

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

 Explorer–climber, Tom Whittaker

Tom Whittaker (mountaineer)

Tom Whittaker was the first disabled person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.Whittaker's right foot needed to be amputated following a car accident in 1979. Following this serious accident, he regained his strength and continued climbing.In 1981 he founded the Cooperative Wilderness...

. In 1997, the station logged more than 36 days of manned missions on the seafloor.