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It’s an amazing moment, a proud moment.” Norman Smith is talking about the imminent launch of Vanguard, an advanced living space on the ocean floor that provides a home and work environment for researchers. Vanguard, he says, is designed to pave the way for a new era of marine science.

Smith is chief technology officer at DEEP, an international design and engineering organisation, whose main mission is to make humans aquatic by establishing subsea habitats that will allow people to live underwater for extended periods.

That’s important because the ocean is a vast source of potentially revolutionary scientific discovery, but has been largely inaccessible
to scientists. DEEP plans to change that. “Science and exploration are the primary
goals here,” says Scott Olson, DEEP’s US Program Manager.

The company’s vision for a new generation of aquatic scientists will begin with the unveiling of Vanguard in Florida next week. Vanguard is a small habitat, roughly the size of a shipping container, that will provide a testbed for all kinds of new subsea technologies, facilities and opportunities. It, and the future habitats that will be deployed once Vanguard has blazed the trail, will allow scientists to remain at depth for extended periods of time.

Undersea innovation

The company’s engineering innovations will bring a new “hotel-like” accommodation opportunity to the deep ocean, and remove
the current time restrictions on human ocean exploration. That opens up the potential for comfortable long-term living at depth, with scientists able to do their undersea fieldwork for months on end— or maybe even years. “There’s really no limit: it’s more about
how long they’ll want to be down there,” Olson says.

DEEP’s daring mission to make humans aquatic ends a long hiatus in the development of undersea habitats. In the 1960s, several were built and deployed, including Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf, the US Navy’s SEALAB and the research station Helgoland, which allowed German scientists to explore the Baltic. However, the last undersea research laboratory was Florida International University’s Aquarius, which was built in the mid-1980s. All contributed to advances in marine science and in our understanding of how humans cope with extended periods of relative isolation. NASA used Aquarius, in particular, to prepare crews for space missions.

So Vanguard is, essentially, the first step forward in this area for four decades. It has space for four occupants and can be placed on the seabed down to depths of 50 metres. It is designed to withstand the subsurface effects of a category 5 hurricane.

“In any emergency situation the crew would be evacuated, but we have to be mindful of the equipment and minimise damage that could take place,” says Jim Williamson of Unique Group, an international diving systems firm working with DEEP to deliver Vanguard. Hurricane-proof safety is mostly achieved through �ղ��Բ��ܲ�����’s anchoring weight. “The current design is more than 200 tonnes, and there’s a couple of piles that will be drilled into the sea floor to keep it from shifting during bad weather,” Williamson says.

Before Vanguard is deployed, it will have its initial commissioning on a Florida dockside, and once the dry tests are done, it will be immersed in deeper waters. That’s when engineers will test features such as the electrics.

Olson is confident about �ղ��Բ��ܲ�����’s engineering: in the past few decades underwater exploration technology has been developing fast, and Vanguard incorporates the latest innovations. “The underwater vehicles that are used in the oil and gas industry have improved and matured dramatically,” he says. “We’re benefiting from all that development.”

Once all the systems are tested and approved, the real fun begins. “After about two weeks it will be on the bottom, and we’ll run drills: operational and emergency procedures,” Olson says. “After that it will be the training period, and then it will be ready for general occupation.”

Vanguard will be deployed at a location that is yet to be announced. With undersea habitats a scarce resource for so long, there’s no shortage of occupiers-in-waiting. As well as its own scientists, DEEP has an extensive list of collaborating institutions hoping to get their scientists some Vanguard time in the next few months. That will enable everyone planning to spend serious time under the ocean to get acquainted with the subsea lifestyle and procedures while DEEP’s next habitat — a multi-module, larger undersea habitat called Sentinel — is being built. “Vanguard is essentially a prototype for developing our experience,” Olson says.

Even though bigger and better things are coming down the line, Vanguard will still be a destination that marine scientists are keen to visit time and again. That’s because it has been constructed with comfort in mind.

First, it will seem bigger than it is. “You have to keep things like sight lines, windows and lighting in mind in the design: you don’t want it to feel claustrophobic,” Smith says.

And where previous subsea habitats have been no-frills, practical, maybe even brutal,  environments, Vanguard has soft furnishings, such as privacy curtains around the beds.

“It’s very inviting,” Williamson says. The commission to provide a touch of luxury was “very refreshing”, he adds; diving systems have tended to be functional, bare bones installations. “Nothing quite like this has ever existed before in our industry,” he says.

The high-spec interior has also been a novel experience for Smith, who is a veteran design engineer for NASA’s crewed spaceflights. “We engineers are used to working with astronauts, aquanauts, manufacturers and subject matter experts, and now we’re working with architects too and getting into interior design and choices for upholstery fabrics.”

Touches of luxury

Of course, there were people on the wider team who could step forward with fabric swatches. But the chosen textiles all had to be tested for compatibility with a pressurised subsea environment for factors like flammability and what volatile chemicals they would release. “We’re very careful about what materials we put inside the habitat,” Smith says.

Proud as he is of what his team has achieved with Vanguard, Smith is already preparing for DEEP’s next project. “My job leading engineering is to make sure we’re ready to go when this team ramps off of Vanguard,” he says. “It’s like, thank you guys — great job. Guess what? It’s time to build Sentinel.”

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