Interview with Dr. Dawn Kernagis discussing living on the ocean floor in an undersea habitat.
Here we primarily discuss her NEEMO missions in previous habitats, with the new DEEP Vanguard being shown. It will be deployed fall 2026.
• Organization: DEEP.
• Location: Tennessee Reef, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
• Features: Dive center with moonpool entry/exit for scuba, rebreather, and hard-hat diving,
reconfigurable living chamber with bunks for four and communal lounge area, safety refuges,
emergency power, and breathing gas.
• Supporting infrastructure: Shore-based command center, watch desk, decompression chamber,
mission support vessels, and facilities for habitat diver training.
• Inhabitants: Crews of up to four aquanauts, living and working underwater for five+ days at a time.
• Mission types: Marine science research, coral reef restoration, long-term monitoring, climate impact
studies, human performance research, and training for extreme environments.
• Total installation weight of foundation, ballast, and habitat: 465 tons.
• Structure footprint (including foundation): 14 meters (46 ft) x 12 meters (39 ft).
• Liveable area of the habitat: 10.7 meters (35 ft) long x 2.5 meters (8 ft) wide.
• Ocean floor installation depth: 17 meters (56 ft).
• Habitat living pressure depth: 13 meters (43 ft).
• Partners: DEEP’s partners on the Vanguard project include Unique Group, Bastion Technologies, Triton
Submarines, and Resolve Marine.
On its mission to make humans aquatic, ocean engineering firm, DEEP, is developing subsea habitats, systems, and training to enable a continuous human presence in the ocean. Vanguard, its prototype habitat, is the first step in a long-term infrastructure program. Next comes Sentinel – a modular habitat system designed for scale.
www.deep.com
Kenny Dyal is the host of The Scuba Diving Podcast.
