The mysteries of the deep ocean have long captivated marine engineers and explorers, yet accessing these remote environments remains an enduring challenge even today.
British startup Deep aims to revolutionise ocean exploration by developing innovative underwater habitats that allow scientists to live and work on the seafloor for extended periods.
This groundbreaking approach promises to unlock new frontiers in marine research and our understanding of Earth’s most significant and crucial ecosystem.
Despite the ocean’s immense size and significance, only a tiny fraction has been thoroughly explored. Current diving technology severely limits researchers’ ability to study the deep sea, where an estimated 90% of marine life resides.
Traditional scuba diving restricts scientists to shallow depths and short bottom times, while submersibles and ROVs offer only brief glimpses of the ocean’s depths. To fully understand and protect our oceans, scientists need a way to immerse themselves in these environments for extended durations.
Deep’s proposed solution is creating underwater habitats where scientists can live and work for weeks or months. The company is developing two primary systems: the transportable Vanguard habitat and the larger, more permanent Sentinel.
Vanguard is a rapidly deployable, expedition-style underwater shelter the size of a shipping container. It can be transported by ship and supply up to three people at depths of 100 meters for roughly a week. Divers can spend hours working on the seabed before returning to the habitat for rest and meals. Vanguard’s flexible power system can connect to onshore renewable energy, floating solar farms, or underwater battery pods.
Sentinel, set to launch in 2027, will be a modular underwater base capable of supporting six people for months at depths up to 200 meters.
The habitat will feature labs, living quarters, and docking ports for submersibles. Sentinel’s modules can be configured for different internal pressures, optimising sections for sample analysis or visitor observation.
At the core of Deep’s underwater habitats is an advanced manufacturing technique known as wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). This process combines 3D printing principles with robotic welding to build up large metal structures layer by layer.
Deep’s manufacturing arm has developed Hexbot, which uses six robotic arms working in unison to 3D print-weld habitat hulls up to 6.1 meters in diameter. The key challenges are precisely controlling the heat during printing to prevent deformation and using materials suited for extreme conditions.
To work at these depths, Deep has had to redesign specific circuit boards and chips to function reliably. Capacitors, batteries, and other energy storage devices require special consideration, such as 1-atmosphere housings or oil immersion, to withstand the pressure differentials during compression and decompression.
Deep underwater habitats should enable scientists to study the ocean in new ways. By living on the seafloor, researchers can conduct continuous, long-term observations and experiments, gather samples, and deploy and maintain instruments. This “boots on the ground” approach will accelerate our understanding of deep-sea ecosystems, marine life, and geologic processes.
The habitats will also serve as analogues for future space exploration. Living in a confined, isolated, and extreme environment mirrors the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and extraterrestrial habitation. Deep’s projects will help develop the knowledge of technology, protocols, and human factors for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Deep is currently focusing on developing and testing the Vanguard prototype, with a pilot program scheduled for the first quarter of 2025. Data and lessons learned from Vanguard will inform the design and construction of the more extensive Sentinel habitat, aiming for a 2027 launch.
Looking further ahead, Deep envisions a permanent human presence in the ocean by 2030. The company is investing in advanced manufacturing facilities and processes to produce undersea habitats and support structures efficiently.
This ambitious vision of humans living and working beneath the waves represents a potential shift in ocean exploration. By providing scientists with immersive access to the deep sea, these new underwater habitats could accelerate our understanding of Earth’s last frontier and its role in the global climate system.
If the technologies and techniques pioneered by Deep are successful, they could lay the foundation for future human expansion into the ocean and outer space.
TL;DR:- Deep is developing underwater habitats to allow scientists to live and work in the deep ocean for extended periods.- The Vanguard and Sentinel habitat systems will support crews at depths up to 200m for weeks to months.- Advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D print-welding enable the construction of these habitats.- Living in a helium atmosphere at depth poses unique engineering challenges for materials and electronics.- The habitats will accelerate marine science and serve as analogues for future space exploration.- Deep aims to establish a permanent human presence in the ocean by 2030.
