[Type a quote from the document or the summary of an interesting point. You can position the text box anywhere in the document. Use the Drawing Tools tab to change the formatting of the pull quote text box.] Abstract What are the different types of Underwater Habitat and how do they differ? What is the Technology used in Underwater Habitats? Underwater habitats are useful study environments for researchers including marine biologists, There are three main types of underwater habitat that are distinguished from one psychologists studying the effects of prolonged periods of isolation in extreme environments, another by how they deal with water and air pressure. The first type, open To access an underwater lab, divers sometimes swim or take submersibles and physiologists studying how life adapts to different pressures. The technologies used and pressure, has an air pressure inside that is equal to the water pressure outside. which then dock with the facility. Shallow habitats may even be accessed by data gleaned from these studies have applications in space research, and in the future Decompression is required for divers returning to the surface from this type of climbing a ladder or taking an elevator. Deep-sea labs have been taken by crane underwater habitats can be used for industrial activity such as mining the deep sea, and facility, but they are able to go in and out of the laboratory on diving missions with from a boat and placed in the sea. In those labs deep underwater, it becomes expansion of these technologies extends humanity’s reach across earth’s biosphere into its relative ease, due to the fact that they don’t need to acclimate to differing dangerous to breathe in the same air as on the surface because the nitrogen oceans. Although implementation is relatively costly, it is worth it because of the important and pressures from the water and within the facility. These facilities use air locks and that makes up 78% of the air we breathe has harmful effects in the bloodstream useful data that can be taken and the testing that is possible on subjects as varied as biology, moon pools to separate the inner habitat from the cold outer ocean. The closed at those pressures. Instead, a mixture of helium and oxygen is breathed; physiology, psychology and new technology. pressure habitat has an air pressure equal to atmospheric air pressure at the however, breathing helium disperses body heat more rapidly and causes a surface, meaning that a diver can go from the surface to the lab without having to modulation in frequency when speaking, which can then create a communication acclimatize to a change in pressure. A closed pressure system also allows for barrier. To combat the heat problem, underwater habitats are built with thick, delivery of supplies via submersibles that are at the same pressure. Like open heavy insulation to keep them warm and comfortable for the divers who will stay pressure habitats, closed pressure habitats also use air locks to regulate access to in them. The water around the facility can be as chilly as 32 degrees Fahrenheit; and from the facility a combination of these two systems is the third type of habitat, fortunately, even deep below the sea it is possible to take a hot shower using Why an Underwater Habitat? one that has both an open and closed pressure system as part of the same habitat. water pumped in from the surface. Underwater habitats have been built using Divers are thus able to go from the lab to the outside using the open pressure part strong metals, most often reinforced steel (Orbital Vector). Their designs are Underwater habitats are useful because they provide a permanent working area for aquanauts of the habitat, and from the lab to the surface using the closed pressure area of the rounded or spherical in order to equalize pressure from the inside. Submarines’ (divers) who have a lot of work to do at depth. The principle behind an underwater habitat is a habitat (Orbital Vector). characteristic oval shape comes from the same logic; a rounded form disperses concept known as saturation diving – when divers remain below sea level, their bodies acclimate to pressure more efficiently than does an angular form. Up to this point, underwater the pressure by accruing concentrations of inert gases in the bloodstream. This is why when habitats have used “umbilical cords” to maintain contact with the surface. These returning to the surface they are at risk for decompression sickness, or the bends. With saturation cords provide hot water, electricity, communication, air and even television from diving, they remain submerged until their blood is saturated with these gases; they only surface the surface. A diver named Lloyd Godson recently made waves by building his once, so less time is wasted reacclimatizing to the surface pressure. The research that is done in own underwater habitat, and using a green algae, Chlorella, to produce his own these facilities benefits a wide variety of fields, in particular space science (Hellwarth). Divers air. With a device called a Biocoil, he harnessed the power of photosynthesis to remaining deep underwater are in a similar situation to astronauts who stay in space for extended replenish his air supply and recycle the carbon dioxide he exhaled (Scheffler). periods of time – in both scenarios, they are away from what they are familiar with, and are placed He also used a stationary bicycle to generate some of his electricity, though he into unfamiliar and hostile environments far from their natural habitat. used an umbilical cord to make sure that he would survive. In the future, it is also possible that power will be generated using the power of the waves on the surface, or from geothermal vents at the bottom of the sea. What is the History of Underwater Habitats? The idea of saturation diving to eliminate the costs, monetary and health-wise, associated with the time-consuming process of acclimatization from deep dives, was the ingenuity of a Navy doctor, Captain George F. Bond, in 1957. By keeping the diver at the same pressure until the mission was completed, physiological damage from decompression sickness would be reduced (HowItWorks.com). Jacques Cousteau from France and Edwin A. Link from the United States developed projects based on the idea. Two divers lived for a week 36 feet beneath the surface in Cousteau’s first habitat, Conshelf I. Conshelf II, in 1963, held five men for a month and had a port for a submersible called a diving saucer, so-called for its resemblance to the flying saucers of science fiction (Cousteau Society). Conshelf III was the first underwater habitat with its own The picture above shows a diver outside of the Aquarius facility located in the compression system in 1969. Link’s original project, called Man-In-The-Sea, was a capsule with a Florida Keys. diver inside that submerged to 200 feet below the surface for 24 hours. The U.S. Navy took his idea and ran with it to create the SEALAB program which, alongside NASA’s space program, took The air we breathe at the surface contains 78% nitrogen, but the gas mixtures man to new extremes. In 1964, four divers lived for eleven days 192 feet below the surface off the breathed by divers substitute helium or a mixture of helium-hydrogen in place of coast of Bermuda in SEALAB I, an open pressure laboratory. SEALAB II, in 1965, in La Jolla What is the future of Underwater Habitats? the nitrogen to prevent harmful bubbles in divers’ bloodstreams Canyon off the coast of California, three teams of divers were submerged to 62 meters for 15 days. One diver and astronaut, Scott Carpenter, set a record by being underwater for 30 days. As technology evolves, more underwater habitats can be expected. Artificial Unlike SEALAB I, SEALAB II had hot showers and refrigeration. 186 m deep off the coast of San gill technology will allow respirators to harvest breathable air from the water Clemente, California, SEALAB III was not very successful. Plans for divers to spend 45 days outside of the habitat. Power may be taken from sources in the environment the habitat is placed in, eliminating the need for umbilical cords to the surface underwater never happened as SEALAB had its first casualty, a diver succumbing to carbon Literature Cited monoxide poisoning while attempting to repair the leaking laboratory. His name was Barry L. (Scheffler). Dennis Chamberland, a marine researcher, is busy at work on the Bergman, Jennifer. "Temperature of Ocean Water."Windows to the Universe. Windows to the Universe, Cannon (U.S. Navy Museum). The SEALAB program became the Tektite program, with the Atlantica expedition, a permanent undersea habitat populated by a ‘family’ of 16 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2012. <http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Water/temp.html>. Tektite habitat built by General Electric being used by the U.S. Navy. Divers with that program set researchers (“Futurist”). It is reminiscent of fiction, such as the book Sphere or the record by being underwater for 60 days (Dmitrityeva). After Tektite came the Hydrolab, in use the videogame Bioshock in its hope and ambition. Underwater hotels in Dubai Bilton, Peter. "Jacques Yves Cousteau: the Man Who Taught the World About the Mysteries of the from 1970 to 1985 for 150 missions off the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, and Fiji are already under construction, with Dubai’s Hydropolis estimated to Deep." Knoji: History. Knoji, 20 2010. Web. Web. 9 Dec. 2012. <http://history.knoji.com/jacques-yves- cousteau-the-man-who-taught-the-world-about-the-mysteries-of-the-deep/>.