DEEP installs Vanguard habitat at Tennessee Reef
The subsea habitat is the first open-ocean deployment of its kind in the United States in 40 years, with parts produced using DEEP's WAAM service to contain program costs
Ocean engineering firm DEEP has completed installation of Vanguard, its pilot subsea human habitat, on the seafloor at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The company claims it is the first open-ocean subsea human habitat built, tested and deployed in the United States in 40 years. The habitat sits 17 meters (56 feet) below the sea surface and is designed to house up to four aquanauts for missions of five days or longer.
First open-ocean deployment in 40 years
DEEP has moved into sea acceptance testing and commissioning, the final steps before classification by DNV, the maritime classification society that has advised on the design and build. Crew training will follow, ahead of research missions expected to cover coral reef restoration, reef monitoring, climate impact studies, human performance research and extreme-environment training.
Norman Smith, Chief Technology Officer at DEEP, said: “Installing Vanguard at Tennessee Reef was a carefully choreographed marine operation with a lot of moving parts, and the culmination of 18 months of intense design, build, and testing efforts. Today is a huge milestone and an experience I’ll never forget.
“Successful deployment gets us closer to enabling a continuous human presence in the ocean and is a major step forward in DEEP’s mission to make humans aquatic. From Vanguard we can expand meaningful access to the underwater environment and unlock new possibilities in marine science, environmental monitoring, human performance and extreme environment training.”
Eddie Kertis, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), added: “For decades, NOAA has supported using subsea habitats as a platform to reveal ground-breaking discoveries that inform the sanctuary’s management well into the future. The deployment of a new subsea habitat within the sanctuary creates additional opportunities for marine science and builds on research infrastructure, resource stewardship, and our long-standing collaboration with the scientific community.”
WAAM manufacturing underpins the program
Vanguard builds on DEEP’s prior development and deployment of Sentinel, a larger modular system that the company built primarily using WAAM metal 3D printing technology.
DEEP runs its own WAAM-based manufacturing service, using Valk Welding torches, Panasonic robot arms and RAMLAB systems to produce large metal components for its habitat programs, an approach the company has said helps contain costs against conventional casting and machining.
Partners on the Vanguard project include Unique Group, Bastion Technologies, Triton Submarines and Resolve Marine.
