New submersible “tent” lets divers nap, eat, and decompress beneath the waves
SINCE THE DAWN of the modern SCUBA age ushered in by Jacques Cousteau in the early 1940s, ocean explorers have been seeking new ways to stay under the sea for longer stretches. Restricted by tank size and human physiology under pressure, SCUBA divers must periodically come up for air, sometimes within just minutes of hitting bottom.
Enter the Ocean Space Habitat, conceived of as sort of underwater “basecamp.”
Designed and recently patented by National Geographic explorer Michael Lombardi and Winslow Burleson, an associate professor at New York University, the inflatable Ocean Space Habitat is a portable life-support system for divers who want to go deeper and stay longer than conventional SCUBA allows.
Continue reading… “Undersea basecamp for ocean explorers”
