SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Since at least the time of the science fiction writer Jules Verne, people have dreamed of being able to live underwater. In the 1960s and '70s, the U.S. and French governments were among those who created undersea habitats where researchers could live and work for extended periods. It's been almost 40 years, though, since the last undersea habitat went into the water. But NPR's Greg Allen reports on a new one created by a company with ambitious plans for underwater research and exploration.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: The company is called DEEP. It was founded four years ago in the United Kingdom with a goal, it says, of making humans more aquatic. It unveiled its first step in that process recently in Miami. It's Vanguard, an undersea habitat where a crew of four can live and work for a week or more without resurfacing. From the outside, it's a big yellow steel tank about 40 feet long. I go inside with DEEP's Roger Garcia.
ROGER GARCIA: This is what's known as the wet porch, where you're standing right now. This is where people come in and out.
ALLEN: Below us, covered by a hatch, is the habitat's moon pool. Once Vanguard is deployed underwater, anchored to the sea floor, this door to the ocean will remain open.
GARCIA: As long as the air pressure in here remains a little bit above the water pressure or equal to the water pressure, the air-water interface is going to stay below where you're standing right now.
ALLEN: To get to the habitat's living quarters and workspace, we go feet first through the open hatch.
GARCIA: Good job.
ALLEN: Yeah.
GARCIA: Very good. Watch your head there. All right.
ALLEN: It's not big, but it's an economical design, not unlike an underwater RV. Bunks fold down to a comfortable seating area. There's a small bathroom and windows on each end so that people in the habitat can keep an eye on divers working outside. It's functional, not fancy, but Garcia is proud Vanguard is almost ready. Before working with DEEP, he spent much of his career on the only other undersea habitat still in operation - Aquarius, a research station in Key Largo. Aquarius is nearly 40 years old. In his time working there, Garcia says he became disappointed as he saw interest and funding decline.
GARCIA: And then here comes DEEP. Just the thought of keeping the legacy going of living underwater and also making humans aquatic in the future - to me, it just made me happy.
ALLEN: DEEP is a privately owned company with an ambitious goal - to establish a permanent human presence underwater. Former hedge fund manager Sean Wolpert is a board member.
SEAN WOLPERT: Our mission is getting eyeballs beneath the surface of the ocean to allow humans to go down on the seabed, be productive across many different tasks, but also do it in such a way where it helps to de-risk that entire process.
ALLEN: For researchers and others who dive for extended periods, an undersea habitat provides the gift of time. With immediate access to the water, Garcia says people staying in the habitat can work up to nine hours a day.
GARCIA: So for them, that's, like, a game-changer, because they will tell you that 10 days of work inside an underwater habitat and the data they can gather from that research could equate to six months of work, in some cases.
ALLEN: Vanguard is a prototype. DEEP says it will be placed at an as-yet-unidentified location 60 feet below the surface. Chief Technology Officer Norman Smith says DEEP has already begun work on a larger undersea habitat that can be expanded to provide space for a dozen or more.
NORMAN SMITH: The vision for the company is a roadmap of larger habitats, modular habitats to be installed in oceans all over the world.
ALLEN: It's a bold vision, but perhaps not more outlandish than a privately funded space exploration company might've seemed a few decades ago. DEEP board member Sean Wolpert.
WOLPERT: I've been in very high-level strategic, sovereign discussions about creating a community on the seabed, so having 130 people living on the seabed by 2035.
ALLEN: DEEP says the first step - getting its prototype, Vanguard, deployed and operational - should happen by the end of the year.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
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