Underwater habitat
Encyclopedia
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. In this context 'habitat
' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment
. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, recently some new underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.
An underwater habitat has to meet the needs of human physiology
and provide suitable environmental
conditions, and the one which is most critical is breathing
air of suitable quality
. Others concern the physical environment (pressure
, temperature
, light
, humidity
), the chemical environment
(drinking water
, food
, waste product
s, toxin
s) and the biological environment
(hazardous sea creatures, microorganism
s, fungi). Much of the science
covering underwater habitats and their technology
designed to meet human requirements is shared with diving
, diving bell
s, submersible vehicle
s and submarine
s, and spacecraft
.
There have been numerous underwater habitats designed, built and used around the world since the early 1960s, either by private individuals or by government
agencies. In that time they have been used almost exclusively for research
and exploration
, but in recent years at least one underwater habitat has been provided for recreation
and tourism
. Research has been devoted particularly to the physiological processes and limits of breathing gases under pressure, for aquanaut
and astronaut
training, as well as for research on marine ecosystems.
A third or composite type has compartments of both types within the same habitat structure and connected via airlocks, such as Aquarius (laboratory)
.
" constructs. They also did much to publicize oceanographic research and, ironically, usher in an age of ocean conservation through building public awareness. Along with Sealab and others, it spawned a generation of smaller, less ambitious yet longer-term undersea habitats primarily for marine research purposes. (See below)
Conshelf I (Continental Shelf Station), constructed in 1962 was the first inhabited underwater habitat. Developed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau
to record basic observations of life underwater, Conshelf I was submerged in 10 metres of water near Marseilles, and the first experiment involved a team of two spending seven days in the habitat. The two oceanauts, Albert Falco
and Claude Wesly, were expected to spend at least five hours a day outside of the station, and were subject to daily medical exams.
Conshelf Two
, the first ambitious attempt for men to live and work on the sea floor, was launched in 1963. In it, a half-dozen oceanauts lived 10 meters down in the Red Sea
off Sudan
in a starfish-shaped house for 30 days. The undersea living experiment also had two other structures, one a submarine hangar that housed a small, two man submarine
referred to as the "diving saucer" for its resemblance to a science fiction flying saucer, and a smaller "deep cabin" where two oceanauts lived at a depth of 30 meters for a week. They were among the first to breath a mixture of helium
and oxygen
, avoiding the normal nitrogen
/oxygen mixture which when breathed under pressure can cause temporary mental instability. The deep cabin was also an early effort in saturation diving
, in which the oceanauts' body tissues were allowed to become totally saturated by the helium in the breathing mixture, a result of breathing the gases under pressure. Normally, this would prove fatal when the team returned to the surface, at which time reduced pressure would cause the helium to bubble out into the divers joints and tissues, afflicting them with the bends
. The conventional solution would have been to subject the divers to lengthy and complex decompression; however, in this case the divers' instead breathed an oxygen-rich mixture of gases for a few hours before returning to the surface in order to purge the excess helium from their tissues. They suffered no apparent ill effects.
The undersea colony was supported with air, water, food, power, all essentials of life, from a large support team above. Men on the bottom performed a number of experiments intended to determine the practicality of working on the sea floor and were subjected to continual medical examinations. Conshelf II was a defining effort in the study of diving physiology and technology, and captured wide public appeal due to its dramatic "Jules Verne
" look and feel. A Cousteau-produced feature film about the effort was awarded an Academy Award for Best Documentary the following year.
Conshelf III was initiated in 1965, six divers lived in the habitat at 102.4 metres (336 feet) in the Mediterranean near the Cap Ferrat lighthouse, between Nice and Monaco, for three weeks. In this effort, Cousteau was determined to make the station more self-sufficient, severing most ties with the surface. A mock oil rig
was set up underwater, and divers successfully performed several industrial tasks.
, primarily to research the physiological aspects of saturation diving
.
was constructed by General Electric
and was funded by NASA
, the Office of Naval Research
and the Department of Interior.
On February 15, 1969, four U. S. Department of Interior scientists (Ed Clifton, Conrad Mahnken, Richard Waller and John VanDerwalker) descended to the ocean floor in Great Lameshur Bay in the U. S. Virgin Islands to begin an ambitious diving project dubbed "Tektite I". By March 18, 1969, the four aquanauts had established a new world's record for saturated diving
by a single team. On April 15, 1969, the aquanaut team returned to the surface with over 58 days of marine scientific studies. More than 19 hours of decompression
therapy were needed to accommodate the scientists' return to the surface.
Inspired in part by NASA's budding Skylab
program and an interest in better understanding the effectiveness of scientists working under extremely isolated living conditions, Tektite was the first saturation diving project to employ scientists rather than professional divers.
The name Tektite
generally refers to a class of meteorites formed by extremely rapid cooling. These include objects of celestial origins that strike the sea surface and come to rest on the bottom (note project Tektite's conceptual origins within the US space program).
The Tektite II missions were carried out in 1970. Tektite II comprised ten missions lasting 10-20 days with four scientists and an engineer on each mission. One of these missions included the first all-female aquanaut team, led by Dr. Sylvia Earle Mead
. Other scientists participating in the all-female mission included Dr. Renate True of Tulane, as well as Ann Hartline and Alina Szmant, graduate students at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The fifth member of the crew was Margaret Ann Lucas, a Villanova engineering graduate, who served as Habitat Engineer. The Tektite II missions were the first to undertake in-depth ecological studies.
Tektite II included 24 hour behavioral and mission observations of each of the missions by a team of observers from the University of Texas at Austin
. Selected episodic events and discussions were videotaped using cameras in the public areas of the habitat. Data about the status, location and activities of each of the 5 members of each mission was collected via key punch data cards every 6 minutes during each mission. This information was collated and processed by BellComm and was used for the support of papers written about the research concerning the relative predictability of behavior patterns of mission participants in constrained, dangerous conditions for extended periods of time, such as those that might be encountered in manned spaceflight.
The Tektite habitat
was designed and built by General Electric Space Division at the Valley Forge Space Technology Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
. The Project Engineer who was responsible for the design of the habitat was Brooks Tenney, Jr. Brooks also served as the underwater Habitat Engineer on the International Mission, the last mission on the Tektite II project. The Program Manager for the Tektite I project at General Electric was Bren Thompson, and the Program Manager for the Tektite II project was Brooks Tenney, Jr.
The Tektite Project was led by Dr. Theodore Marton who worked for General Electric.
(NOAA). Hydrolab could house 4 people. Approximately 180 Hydrolab missions were conducted; 100 missions in the Bahamas during the early to mid 1970s, and 80 missions in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands
, from 1977 to 1985. These scientific missions are chronicled in the Hydrolab Journal.
Dr. William Fife
spent 28 days in saturation performing physiology
experiments on researchers such as Dr. Sylvia Earle
.
The habitat was decommissioned in 1985 and placed on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National History Museum
in Washington, D.C.
. The habitat is now located at the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, MD.
Aquarius is presently one of the world's only operational underwater laboratories. It is located adjacent to a coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
.
Chris Olstad at Key Largo
, Florida. The seafloor laboratory has trained hundreds of individuals in that time featuring an extensive array of educational and scientific investigations from US Military investigations to pharmaceutical development.
Beginning with a project initiated in 1973, MarineLab, then known as MEDUSA (Midshipman Engineered & Designed Undersea Systems Apparatus), was designed and built as part of an ocean engineering student program at the United States Naval Academy under the direction of Dr. Neil T. Monney. In 1983, MEDUSA was donated to the Marine Resources Development Foundation (MRDF), and in 1984 was deployed on the seafloor in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo, Florida. The 8 X 16 - foot (2.5 X 4.9m) shore-supported habitat supports 3-4 persons and is divided into a laboratory, a wet-room, and a 5’ 6” (1.7m) transparent observation sphere. From the beginning, it has been used by students for observation, research, and instruction. In 1985, it was renamed MarineLab and moved to the 30-foot (9.2m) deep mangrove lagoon at MRDF headquarters in Key Largo at a depth of 27 foot (8.3m) with a hatch depth of 20 feet (6.2m). The lagoon contains artifacts and wrecks placed there for education and training. During 1993-95, NASA used MarineLab repeatedly to study Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELLS). These education and research programs qualify MARINE-LAB as the world’s most extensively used habitat.
MarineLab is also used as an underwater lab for excursions and underwater lab training for recreational and sport divers who stay under the sea at the Jules Undersea Lodge. MarineLab is currently located right next to the Jules Undersea lodge which is actually the La Chalupa Research Laboratory converted into a luxury underwater habitat, features include a large movie selection and specialty menus, including underwater pizza delivered by a diver. There is a cable running along the bottom of the lagoon that divers can follow at night or in reduced visibility to reach MarineLab which is a short distance from the Jules Underwater Lodge. Basically, MarineLab is set up to do lab work and to serve as an underwater science classroom and the Jules Underwater Lodge is used as an underwater habitat base where the participants can stay over night, rest, relax and dine in comfort.
In the mid 1980s La Chalupa was transformed into Jules Undersea Lodge
in Key Largo
, Florida. Jules' co-developer Dr. Neil Monney formerly served as Professor and Director of Ocean Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy, and has extensive experience as a research scientist, aquanaut
, and designer of underwater habitats.
Jules' has had over 10,000 overnight guests in its 20 years of operation. Today many certified divers who are interested stay in the Jules Underwater Lodge, and some who meet the skill and bottom time requirements and participate in underwater experiments in the MarineLab can elect to receive specialty diver recognition from PADI or NAUI as an AQUANAUT. This is probably the only recreational Aquanaut qualification available worldwide. Today Aquanaut Hotel guests must scuba dive to get down to the hotel, and a nearby landbase offers diving lessons for people who are unfamiliar with the activity. Years ago non-scuba diving guests were taken down to the lodge breathing air pumped down from the surface through a long hose similar to a garden hose but this practice was discontinued and now all guests must scuba dive to the lodge enterance five fathoms below. The air hose system is often still used by the underwater guides to get back and forth to the lodge without donning scuba gear.
was launched near Key Largo on six week missions in 1997 and 1998. The station was a NASA project illustrating the analogous science and engineering concepts common to both undersea and space missions. During the missions, some 20 aquanauts rotated through the undersea station including NASA scientists, engineers and director James Cameron
. The SCSAS was designed by NASA engineer Dennis Chamberland
.
Underwater
Underwater is a term describing the realm below the surface of water where the water exists in a natural feature such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, or river. Three quarters of the planet Earth is covered by water...
structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day
Circadian rhythm
A circadian rhythm, popularly referred to as body clock, is an endogenously driven , roughly 24-hour cycle in biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes. Circadian rhythms have been widely observed in plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria...
, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping. In this context 'habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
' is generally used in a narrow sense to mean the interior and immediate exterior of the structure and its fixtures, but not its surrounding marine environment
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
. Most early underwater habitats lacked regenerative systems for air, water, food, electricity, and other resources. However, recently some new underwater habitats allow for these resources to be delivered using pipes, or generated within the habitat, rather than manually delivered.
An underwater habitat has to meet the needs of human physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
and provide suitable environmental
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
conditions, and the one which is most critical is breathing
Breathing
Breathing is the process that moves air in and out of the lungs. Aerobic organisms require oxygen to release energy via respiration, in the form of the metabolism of energy-rich molecules such as glucose. Breathing is only one process that delivers oxygen to where it is needed in the body and...
air of suitable quality
Indoor air quality
Indoor air quality is a term referring to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants....
. Others concern the physical environment (pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
, temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...
, light
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz...
, humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
), the chemical environment
Environmental chemistry
Environmental chemistry is the scientific study of the chemical and biochemical phenomena that occur in natural places. It should not be confused with green chemistry, which seeks to reduce potential pollution at its source...
(drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
, waste product
Human waste
Human waste is a waste type usually used to refer to byproducts of digestion, such as feces and urine. Human waste is most often transported as sewage in waste water through sewerage systems...
s, toxin
Toxin
A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...
s) and the biological environment
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
(hazardous sea creatures, microorganism
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
s, fungi). Much of the science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
covering underwater habitats and their technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
designed to meet human requirements is shared with diving
Underwater diving
Underwater diving is the practice of going underwater, either with breathing apparatus or by breath-holding .Recreational diving is a popular activity...
, diving bell
Diving bell
A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers to depth in the ocean. The most common types are the wet bell and the closed bell....
s, submersible vehicle
Submersible
A submersible is a small vehicle designed to operate underwater. The term submersible is often used to differentiate from other underwater vehicles known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully autonomous craft, capable of renewing its own power and breathing air, whereas a submersible is...
s and submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s, and spacecraft
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
.
There have been numerous underwater habitats designed, built and used around the world since the early 1960s, either by private individuals or by government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
agencies. In that time they have been used almost exclusively for research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
and exploration
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
, but in recent years at least one underwater habitat has been provided for recreation
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...
and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
. Research has been devoted particularly to the physiological processes and limits of breathing gases under pressure, for 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...
and 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....
training, as well as for research on marine ecosystems.
Basic types of habitats
Underwater habitats are designed to operate in two fundamental modes.- Open to ambient pressure via a moon poolMoon poolA moon pool is a feature of marine drilling platforms, drillships and diving support vessels, some marine research and underwater exploration or research vessels, and underwater habitats, in which it is also known as a wet porch...
, meaning the air pressure inside the habitat equals underwater pressure at the same level, such as SEALAB, and which makes entry and exit easy as there is no physical barrier other than the moon pool water surface - Closed to the sea by hatchHatchHatch may refer to:* Hatching, also called "cross-hatching", an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects using closely spaced parallel lines* Hatching, the emergence of a young animal from an egg...
es, with internal air pressure less than ambient pressure and at or closer to atmospheric pressureAtmospheric pressureAtmospheric pressure is the force per unit area exerted into a surface by the weight of air above that surface in the atmosphere of Earth . In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point...
; entry or exit to the sea requires passing through hatches and an airlockAirlockAn airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it...
A third or composite type has compartments of both types within the same habitat structure and connected via airlocks, such as 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...
.
Conshelf I, II and III
Conshelf, short for Continental Shelf Station, was a series of undersea living and research stations undertaken by Jacques Cousteau's team in the 1960s. The original design was for five of these stations to be submerged to a maximum depth of 300m over the decade; in reality only three were completed with a maximum depth of 100m. Much of the work was funded in part by the French Petrochemical industry, who, along with Cousteau, hoped that such manned colonies could serve as base stations for the future exploitation of the sea. Such colonies did not find a productive future, however, as Cousteau later repudiated his support for such exploitation of the sea and put his efforts toward conservation. It was also found in later years that industrial tasks underwater could be more efficiently performed by undersea robot devices and men operating from the surface or from smaller lowered structures, made possible by a more advanced understanding of diving physiology. Still, these three undersea living experiments did much to advance man's knowledge of undersea technology and physiology, and were valuable as "proof of conceptProof of concept
A proof of concept or a proof of principle is a realization of a certain method or idea to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle, whose purpose is to verify that some concept or theory that has the potential of being used...
" constructs. They also did much to publicize oceanographic research and, ironically, usher in an age of ocean conservation through building public awareness. Along with Sealab and others, it spawned a generation of smaller, less ambitious yet longer-term undersea habitats primarily for marine research purposes. (See below)
Conshelf I (Continental Shelf Station), constructed in 1962 was the first inhabited underwater habitat. Developed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water...
to record basic observations of life underwater, Conshelf I was submerged in 10 metres of water near Marseilles, and the first experiment involved a team of two spending seven days in the habitat. The two oceanauts, Albert Falco
Albert Falco
Albert Falco is a French scuba diving veteran and champion of underwater conservation. He was one of the longest-serving diving companions of Jacques Cousteau, Chief Diver, and later Captain of the RV Calypso. He now lives in France and is still active in preserving aquatic ecosystems.-External...
and Claude Wesly, were expected to spend at least five hours a day outside of the station, and were subject to daily medical exams.
Conshelf Two
Continental Shelf Station Two
Continental Shelf Station Two or Conshelf Two was an attempt at creating an environment in which men could live and work on the sea floor. It was the successor to Continental Shelf Station One ....
, the first ambitious attempt for men to live and work on the sea floor, was launched in 1963. In it, a half-dozen oceanauts lived 10 meters down in the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
off Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
in a starfish-shaped house for 30 days. The undersea living experiment also had two other structures, one a submarine hangar that housed a small, two man submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
referred to as the "diving saucer" for its resemblance to a science fiction flying saucer, and a smaller "deep cabin" where two oceanauts lived at a depth of 30 meters for a week. They were among the first to breath a mixture of helium
Helium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
and oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
, avoiding the normal nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
/oxygen mixture which when breathed under pressure can cause temporary mental instability. The deep cabin was also an early effort in saturation diving
Saturation diving
Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
, in which the oceanauts' body tissues were allowed to become totally saturated by the helium in the breathing mixture, a result of breathing the gases under pressure. Normally, this would prove fatal when the team returned to the surface, at which time reduced pressure would cause the helium to bubble out into the divers joints and tissues, afflicting them with the bends
Decompression sickness
Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurization...
. The conventional solution would have been to subject the divers to lengthy and complex decompression; however, in this case the divers' instead breathed an oxygen-rich mixture of gases for a few hours before returning to the surface in order to purge the excess helium from their tissues. They suffered no apparent ill effects.
The undersea colony was supported with air, water, food, power, all essentials of life, from a large support team above. Men on the bottom performed a number of experiments intended to determine the practicality of working on the sea floor and were subjected to continual medical examinations. Conshelf II was a defining effort in the study of diving physiology and technology, and captured wide public appeal due to its dramatic "Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
" look and feel. A Cousteau-produced feature film about the effort was awarded an Academy Award for Best Documentary the following year.
Conshelf III was initiated in 1965, six divers lived in the habitat at 102.4 metres (336 feet) in the Mediterranean near the Cap Ferrat lighthouse, between Nice and Monaco, for three weeks. In this effort, Cousteau was determined to make the station more self-sufficient, severing most ties with the surface. A mock oil rig
Oil platform
An oil platform, also referred to as an offshore platform or, somewhat incorrectly, oil rig, is a lаrge structure with facilities to drill wells, to extract and process oil and natural gas, and to temporarily store product until it can be brought to shore for refining and marketing...
was set up underwater, and divers successfully performed several industrial tasks.
SEALAB I, II and III
SEALAB was developed by the United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, primarily to research the physiological aspects of saturation diving
Saturation diving
Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
.
Tektite I and II
The Tektite underwater habitatTektite habitat
The Tektite habitat was an underwater laboratory which was the home to divers during Tektite I and II programs. The Tektite program was the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored nationally. The habitat capsule was placed in Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, U.S...
was constructed by General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
and was funded by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, the Office of Naval Research
Office of Naval Research
The Office of Naval Research , headquartered in Arlington, Virginia , is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that coordinates, executes, and promotes the science and technology programs of the U.S...
and the Department of Interior.
On February 15, 1969, four U. S. Department of Interior scientists (Ed Clifton, Conrad Mahnken, Richard Waller and John VanDerwalker) descended to the ocean floor in Great Lameshur Bay in the U. S. Virgin Islands to begin an ambitious diving project dubbed "Tektite I". By March 18, 1969, the four aquanauts had established a new world's record for saturated diving
Saturation diving
Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
by a single team. On April 15, 1969, the aquanaut team returned to the surface with over 58 days of marine scientific studies. More than 19 hours of decompression
Decompression
Decompression has several meanings:* Decompression , the release of pressure and the opposition of physical compression* Decompression sickness, a condition arising from the precipitation of dissolved gases into bubbles inside the body on depressurization* Decompression , a procedure used to treat...
therapy were needed to accommodate the scientists' return to the surface.
Inspired in part by NASA's budding Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
program and an interest in better understanding the effectiveness of scientists working under extremely isolated living conditions, Tektite was the first saturation diving project to employ scientists rather than professional divers.
The name Tektite
Tektite
Tektites are natural glass rocks up to a few centimeters in size, which most scientists argue were formed by the impact of large meteorites on Earth's surface. Tektites are typically black or olive-green, and their shape varies from rounded to irregular.Tektites are among the "driest" rocks, with...
generally refers to a class of meteorites formed by extremely rapid cooling. These include objects of celestial origins that strike the sea surface and come to rest on the bottom (note project Tektite's conceptual origins within the US space program).
The Tektite II missions were carried out in 1970. Tektite II comprised ten missions lasting 10-20 days with four scientists and an engineer on each mission. One of these missions included the first all-female aquanaut team, led by Dr. Sylvia Earle Mead
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...
. Other scientists participating in the all-female mission included Dr. Renate True of Tulane, as well as Ann Hartline and Alina Szmant, graduate students at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The fifth member of the crew was Margaret Ann Lucas, a Villanova engineering graduate, who served as Habitat Engineer. The Tektite II missions were the first to undertake in-depth ecological studies.
Tektite II included 24 hour behavioral and mission observations of each of the missions by a team of observers from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. Selected episodic events and discussions were videotaped using cameras in the public areas of the habitat. Data about the status, location and activities of each of the 5 members of each mission was collected via key punch data cards every 6 minutes during each mission. This information was collated and processed by BellComm and was used for the support of papers written about the research concerning the relative predictability of behavior patterns of mission participants in constrained, dangerous conditions for extended periods of time, such as those that might be encountered in manned spaceflight.
The Tektite habitat
Tektite habitat
The Tektite habitat was an underwater laboratory which was the home to divers during Tektite I and II programs. The Tektite program was the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored nationally. The habitat capsule was placed in Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, U.S...
was designed and built by General Electric Space Division at the Valley Forge Space Technology Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,936. The community took its name in the 18th century from a local tavern named the King of Prussia Inn, which was named after...
. The Project Engineer who was responsible for the design of the habitat was Brooks Tenney, Jr. Brooks also served as the underwater Habitat Engineer on the International Mission, the last mission on the Tektite II project. The Program Manager for the Tektite I project at General Electric was Bren Thompson, and the Program Manager for the Tektite II project was Brooks Tenney, Jr.
The Tektite Project was led by Dr. Theodore Marton who worked for General Electric.
Hydrolab
Hydrolab was constructed in 1966 and used as a research station from 1970. The project was in part funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
(NOAA). Hydrolab could house 4 people. Approximately 180 Hydrolab missions were conducted; 100 missions in the Bahamas during the early to mid 1970s, and 80 missions in St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands
United States Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...
, from 1977 to 1985. These scientific missions are chronicled in the Hydrolab Journal.
Dr. William Fife
William Paul Fife
Colonel William Paul "Bill" Fife USAF was a United States Air Force officer that first proved the feasibility for U.S. Air Force Security Service airborne Communications Intelligence collection and Fife is considered the "Father of Airborne Intercept"...
spent 28 days in saturation performing physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
experiments on researchers such as Dr. Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Earle
Sylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...
.
The habitat was decommissioned in 1985 and placed on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National History Museum
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. The habitat is now located at the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, MD.
Aquarius
- See main article AquariusAquarius (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...
.
Aquarius is presently one of the world's only operational underwater laboratories. It is located adjacent to a coral reef in 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...
.
MarineLab
The MarineLab underwater laboratory is the longest serving seafloor habitat in history, having operated continuously in an unbroken service since 1984 under the direction of aquanautAquanaut
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...
Chris Olstad at 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. The seafloor laboratory has trained hundreds of individuals in that time featuring an extensive array of educational and scientific investigations from US Military investigations to pharmaceutical development.
Beginning with a project initiated in 1973, MarineLab, then known as MEDUSA (Midshipman Engineered & Designed Undersea Systems Apparatus), was designed and built as part of an ocean engineering student program at the United States Naval Academy under the direction of Dr. Neil T. Monney. In 1983, MEDUSA was donated to the Marine Resources Development Foundation (MRDF), and in 1984 was deployed on the seafloor in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo, Florida. The 8 X 16 - foot (2.5 X 4.9m) shore-supported habitat supports 3-4 persons and is divided into a laboratory, a wet-room, and a 5’ 6” (1.7m) transparent observation sphere. From the beginning, it has been used by students for observation, research, and instruction. In 1985, it was renamed MarineLab and moved to the 30-foot (9.2m) deep mangrove lagoon at MRDF headquarters in Key Largo at a depth of 27 foot (8.3m) with a hatch depth of 20 feet (6.2m). The lagoon contains artifacts and wrecks placed there for education and training. During 1993-95, NASA used MarineLab repeatedly to study Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELLS). These education and research programs qualify MARINE-LAB as the world’s most extensively used habitat.
MarineLab is also used as an underwater lab for excursions and underwater lab training for recreational and sport divers who stay under the sea at the Jules Undersea Lodge. MarineLab is currently located right next to the Jules Undersea lodge which is actually the La Chalupa Research Laboratory converted into a luxury underwater habitat, features include a large movie selection and specialty menus, including underwater pizza delivered by a diver. There is a cable running along the bottom of the lagoon that divers can follow at night or in reduced visibility to reach MarineLab which is a short distance from the Jules Underwater Lodge. Basically, MarineLab is set up to do lab work and to serve as an underwater science classroom and the Jules Underwater Lodge is used as an underwater habitat base where the participants can stay over night, rest, relax and dine in comfort.
La Chalupa Research Laboratory
In the early 1970s, Ian Koblick, president of Marine Resources Development Foundation, developed and operated the La Chalupa research laboratory, which was the largest and most technologically advanced underwater habitat of its time. Koblick, who has continued his work as a pioneer in developing advanced undersea programs for ocean science and education, is the co-author of the book "Living and Working in the Sea" and is considered one of the foremost authorities on undersea habitation.In the mid 1980s La Chalupa was transformed into Jules Undersea Lodge
Jules Undersea Lodge
Jules' Undersea Lodge is an American hotel located in Key Largo, Florida and is the only underwater hotel in the United States. It is 30 feet deep on the ocean floor and guests have to scuba dive to get to their rooms. The hotel is located at the bottom of the Emerald Lagoon and was opened in 1986...
in 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. Jules' co-developer Dr. Neil Monney formerly served as Professor and Director of Ocean Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy, and has extensive experience as a research scientist, 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...
, and designer of underwater habitats.
Jules' has had over 10,000 overnight guests in its 20 years of operation. Today many certified divers who are interested stay in the Jules Underwater Lodge, and some who meet the skill and bottom time requirements and participate in underwater experiments in the MarineLab can elect to receive specialty diver recognition from PADI or NAUI as an AQUANAUT. This is probably the only recreational Aquanaut qualification available worldwide. Today Aquanaut Hotel guests must scuba dive to get down to the hotel, and a nearby landbase offers diving lessons for people who are unfamiliar with the activity. Years ago non-scuba diving guests were taken down to the lodge breathing air pumped down from the surface through a long hose similar to a garden hose but this practice was discontinued and now all guests must scuba dive to the lodge enterance five fathoms below. The air hose system is often still used by the underwater guides to get back and forth to the lodge without donning scuba gear.
Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station
The Scott Carpenter Space Analog StationScott Carpenter Space Analog Station
The Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station was designed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a seafloor research station—or underwater habitat. It was designed by NASA Aquanaut, Dennis Chamberland and Marine Engineer, Joseph M. Bishop and named in honor of the Mercury...
was launched near Key Largo on six week missions in 1997 and 1998. The station was a NASA project illustrating the analogous science and engineering concepts common to both undersea and space missions. During the missions, some 20 aquanauts rotated through the undersea station including NASA scientists, engineers and director James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
. The SCSAS was designed by NASA engineer 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...
.
Lloyd Godson's Biosub
Lloyd Godson's Biosub was an underwater habitat, built in 2007 for a competition by Australian Geographic. The Biosub generated its own electricity (using a bike), its own water, using the Air2Water Dragon Fly M18 system, its own air (using algae that produce O2). The algae were fed using the Cascade High School Advanced Biology Class Biocoil. The habitat shelf itself was constructed by Trygons Designs.Atlantica Expedition
On July 4, 2012 a new expedition is scheduled to launch. Called the Atlantica Expedition I & II, it is a new endeavor to once again try to establish a permanent deep-sea underwater human colony with several stages of development. It is being led by Dennis Chamberland. Believing that good preparation and planning will be the key to a thriving community underwater as on land, Chamberland seeks to methodically study and deal with potential problems of a permanent underwater habitat with the establishment of Leviathan, the first underwater module, scheduled to “launch” on July 4, 2012. He believes that it is possible to overcome the problems of humans living underwater by thoroughly researching and studying all aspects of underwater living; from the technical difficulties like producing breathable oxygen and structural integrity to the political ramifications of how the culture would be run. He’s made the jump from temporary underwater research stations to an all encompassing changing human community. Dr. Sarah Jane Pell is also a researcher and scientist who has worked towards the establishment and study of permanent colony both in the ocean and in space.In popular culture
- The AbyssThe AbyssThe Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri...
, a 1989 movie that takes place in an underwater habitat. - Ocean GirlOcean GirlOcean Girl is an Australian science fiction TV series aimed for family audiences and starring Marzena Godecki as the lead character...
an Australian series that features a massive underwater research facility called ORCA. - Deep Blue SeaDeep Blue SeaDeep Blue Sea is a 1999 science fiction horror film that stars Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, and Samuel L Jackson. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was released in the United States on July 28, 1999.- Plot :...
, a movie that features scientists working in a large underwater lab station called Aquatica. - Diving AdventureDiving AdventureDiving Adventure is a 1970 children's book by the Canadian-born American author Willard Price featuring his "Adventure" series characters, Hal and Roger Hunt. It depicts their exploits in a futuristic underwater city....
, a novel by author Willard PriceWillard PriceWillard DeMille Price was a Canadian-born American natural historian and author of children's fiction.Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and his family subsequently moved to the United States when he was four. He acquired his MA and Litt.D from Columbia University, before going on to edit...
, features an Undersea City clearly inspired by Cousteau's underwater habitat projects. - Captain Nemo and the Underwater CityCaptain Nemo and the Underwater CityCaptain Nemo and the Underwater City is a 1969 British film, featuring the character Captain Nemo and some of the settings of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It was written by Pip and Jane Baker and stars Robert Ryan as Nemo....
, much of this movie takes place in an underwater city, named Templemir, built by Captain Nemo and his followers. - BioShockBioshockBioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
and BioShock 2BioShock 2BioShock 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The sequel to the 2007 video game BioShock, it was released worldwide on February 9, 2010....
, a video game that takes place in Rapture, a secretly-built underwater city. - Champions OnlineChampions OnlineChampions Online is a free-to-play superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game by former City of Heroes/Villains developer Cryptic Studios based on the Champions license. The game's rules and setting are loosely based on the HERO System ruleset...
, an MMORPGMMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
featuring an underwater city called Lumeria - Deus ExDeus ExDeus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
, a video game, features an underwater research laboratory called OceanLab. - Sealab 2020Sealab 2020Sealab 2020 is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series is about the crew of an underwater research base and has an environmental theme. The series premiered on the television network NBC on September 9, 1972...
, an animated series from the 1970s, takes place in a fictional underwater research lab, as does Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
's reworking of the show, Sealab 2021Sealab 2021Sealab 2021 is an American animated television series. It was shown on Cartoon Network's adult-oriented programming block, Adult Swim. It premiered on November 23, 2000 and the final episode aired on April 25, 2005...
. - Voyage to the Bottom of the SeaVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
- SeaQuest DSVSeaQuest DSVseaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...
featured numerous underwater colonies, research facilities, and military installations. - SphereSphere (novel)Sphere is a science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton and published in 1987. It was made into the film Sphere in 1998.The novel follows Norman Johnson as a psychologist who is engaged by the United States Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an...
, a novel that takes place in an underwater habitat. - Various episodes of the BBC educational series Science In Action featured an Underwater Habitat that could house a U-Boat.
- In The Spy Who Loved MeThe Spy Who Loved Me (film)The Spy Who Loved Me is a spy film, the tenth film in the James Bond series, and the third to star Roger Moore as the fictional secret agent James Bond. It was directed by Lewis Gilbert and the screenplay was written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum...
, the film's villain, Karl Stromberg, lives in an underwater fortress. - The TV series StingrayStingray (TV series)Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964–65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. The scriptwriters included Gerry and...
featured an underwater complex. - LostLost (TV series)Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, a building known as the Looking Glass is an underwater station built by the Dharma InitiativeDHARMA InitiativeThe Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science...
. - Ever 17, A game that tells the story of seven people who are trapped in an underwater theme park (LeMU) and their struggle to escape.
- Call of Duty: Black OpsCall of Duty: Black OpsCall of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch, published by Activision and released worldwide on November 9, for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii consoles, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by n-Space. Announced on April 30, 2010,...
, In the final mission the player attacks an underwater fortress - Hello Down ThereHello Down ThereHello Down There is a 1969 musical comedy film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Jack Arnold and Ricou Browning and produced by George Sherman and Ivan Tors from a screenplay by John McGreevey and Frank Telford. It starred Tony Randall and Janet Leigh...
, a movie movie about a family living in an underwater house
See also
- Artificial gills (human)Artificial gills (human)Artificial gills are a device to let a human take in oxygen from surrounding water. This technology does not exist yet or is in early stage of being developed.-Methods:Several potential methods exist for the development of artificial gills...
, a method to harvest air from water - Saturation divingSaturation divingSaturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
- Water Environment Research FoundationWater Environment Research FoundationThe Water Environment Research Foundation is the research branch of the sewage industry's main trade, lobby and public relations organization Water Environment Federation .-External links:...
(WERF) - Human outpostHuman outpostHuman outposts are artificially-created, controlled human habitats located in environments inhospitable for humans, such as on the ocean floor, in space or on another planet....
External links
- Jules' Undersea Lodge
- Underwater habitat in formation Oceanic Ecovillage
- Trilobis 65 Floating Home
- US Naval Undersea Museum SEALAB II Display
- Underwater Cities
- Concrete underwater habitat