DEEP’s Vanguard is now installed on the seafloor at Tennessee Reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, becoming the first open-ocean subsea human habitat built, tested, and deployed in the United States in 40 years and marking a major milestone for subsea engineering, ocean research, and conservation.
Vanguard’s deployment involved setting an ocean floor foundation in place, fixing the habitat onto the foundation, and securely tethering the surface support buoy nearby.
The complete system now sits on sandy bottom at 17m. The liveable part of the habitat measures 10.7 metres long x 2.5 metres wide and is designed to support crews of up to four aquanauts living and working underwater on research missions of five or more days.
With deployment complete, sea acceptance testing and commissioning are now underway – the final steps toward DNV classification. DNV, a global leader in maritime classification, has been engaged throughout the design and build process, providing independent technical assurance that Vanguard meets rigorous engineering standards.
DEEP will then turn its focus to habitat support crew training ahead of Vanguard’s first research missions at Tennessee Reef.
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.”
Tennessee Reef is a critical area of scientific interest. Vanguard enables scientists to live and work at depth for days at a time, dramatically increasing the volume and continuity of research that can be conducted at the reef, accelerating understanding of coral health, ecosystem dynamics, and the impacts of climate change.
Eddie Kertis, superintendent of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, said: “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.”
Vanguard is the beginning of something larger. DEEP is building ocean infrastructure – a long-term programme of habitats designed to give humans a sustained presence beneath the waves. As DEEP’s pilot habitat, Vanguard provides the real-world experience that informs what comes next: Sentinel, a larger, modular habitat system.
Photo credit: DEEP and Brendan Hall
