Manned Deep Ocean Floor Labs

The deep submergence vehicle alvin is constructed by the woods hole oceanographic institute.

Manned deep ocean floor labs. The dream of building a manned deep ocean research submersible first started to move toward reality on february 29 1956. The aquarius habitat has about 400 square feet of living and laboratory space. A life support buoy at the surface the habitat and a baseplate that secures the habitat to the ocean floor. One of the early attempts to allow people to live below the ocean s surface was the sealab project which is not the cartoon you watch late at night while eating the research labs you ordered from taco bell like the conshelf the sealab project also came in a set of three the first of which was launched off the coast of bermuda in 1964 but cut short by an approaching storm system.

Uncw near the habitat are other facilities to assist divers. Other planned ocean bottom descents. Several other manned expeditions are planned. Similarly mir i and mir ii are three person submersibles that can operate at a depth of 20 000 ft meaning they have the capability of accessing 98 of the ocean floor.

Triton submarines a florida based company that designs and manufactures private submarines whose vehicle triton 36000 3 will carry a crew of three to the seabed in 120 minutes. Aquarius is one of three undersea laboratories in the world dedicated to science and education. Sealab ii an underwater habitat is lowered off the coast of. Despite having windows for gazing upon the ocean floor the main data collection comes from the videos and manipulator arms which can be used for biological or geological.

Two additional undersea facilities also located in key largo florida are owned and operated by marine resources development foundation. The aquarius system has three elements. Alvin was the first u s based deep diving submersible and has now made over 4 400 descents and led to numerous ocean floor discoveries. Develop a national program for manned undersea vehicles.

This is only the second manned expedition to the ocean s deepest depths the first took place in 1960 when us navy lt don walsh and swiss oceanographer jacques piccard spent about 20 minutes on.