If I asked you to describe the moment the Apollo 11 mission was a success, like most, you might recount Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. You might even recite the famous one-liner.
But if you’re an engineer or work in the field of exploration, I’m betting you’d give a different answer.
I’d argue that mission success actually occurred four days later, when the astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and returned safely to their families.
Fundamental to any exploration - or any transport for that matter - is that people not only reach their destination, but return safely.
Anyone in the submarine industry will tell you that getting home is more important than the exploration itself.
DEEP’s goal is to make humans aquatic. People are central to the mission, making safety the guiding principle behind the subsea habitats we build. If we want to make it easier to access, explore and inhabit underwater environments, it must be safe to do so.
But the ocean is not a zero-risk environment. So how are underwater habits, such as our flagship Sentinel, made safe?
Let me tell you how we do it at DEEP.
The underwater hazards for subsea habitats and submersibles
The risks of subsea exploration are well known and understood. A vessel must maintain its integrity under the pressure that the sea brings. So too must humans mitigate the risks of decompression when resurfacing.
Luckily for engineers and divers, subsea exploration is not new.
Humans have safely dived to extreme depths to explore the Mariana Trench for decades. The world of submersibles has a wide body of successful quality assurance programs, including those for military applications (such as the US Navy’s ‘SUBSAFE program’, under which no SUBSAFE certified marine vessel has been lost).
Many of the same risks that affect submersibles and existing deep sea diving practices apply to the subsea habitats DEEP is building.
We’re building on established best practice, industry standards, and past learnings rather than taking risks for the first time.
What we know from existing best practice is that overcoming the safety challenges relies on a two-pronged approach, covering both structural engineering and ‘human engineering’.
Building safe subsea structures - classification
There is currently no regulation requiring private submersibles or subsea habitats to be classed (but I feel strongly there should be). DEEP believes classification is a must for safety, regardless.
Among other benefits, classification brings in the expertise of a third party and ensures there isn’t an echo chamber that could compromise safety. In my experience, it’s never a good idea to mark your own homework.
All our habitats will be classed and we are working with DNV to set standards and best practice. We’re inviting the organisation to certify what we build and help improve it.
You might not have heard of DNV, so as a quick primer, think of the organisation as the world’s leading classification society and recognized advisor to the maritime industry, delivering testing, certification and technical advisory services.
Now, you might be wondering what classification actually entails. There’s a fair bit involved. In fact, getting a structure classed is an extremely thorough process. Your entire supply and production chain is subject to intense scrutiny.
Our facilities are inspected and approved before work on a habitat can begin.
The materials and the integrity of the materials we intend to use are assessed, probing for any potential weaknesses.
The assembly process in our factory is assessed with a series of steps.
A succession of acceptance tests must be passed before a structure even touches water and sea acceptance tests begin.
Essentially, DNV assesses our processes and production at every stage. We will not deploy a habitat commercially until both we and the third party are satisfied.
Our approach to testing
You’ll have noticed that testing is an integral part of getting classed. Testing really is the backbone of making anything safe. So our approach to putting a habitat through its paces is incredibly important.
It goes without saying, you don’t want the first time you experience a problem to be 200 meters under water. Testing is a rigorous and ongoing process across everything we do at DEEP.
It means being incremental and iterative.
Take Vanguard, our first habitat to go into the water. Underwater tests for Vanguard will start at a depth of five meters. We’ll take learnings. Then we’ll test at 20 meters and take learnings there. Then 50 meters. And you get the picture. We test incrementally until we are satisfied a habitat is safe beyond the intended environment it will be used in.
But underwater tests are just one part of the testing process. It starts above ground.
We build full-scale models to simulate life underwater
Testing is not just about the integrity of the structure. It’s also about understanding how people will live and work in that structure. To understand these human factors, we build complex and sophisticated full-scale models of our habitats.
These models allow us to understand how the habitat will feel for divers living in them. Is the space comfortable? Can things be easily reached? Is the layout effective?
And they allow us to train divers in a completely safe environment, simulating emergencies in order to develop effective emergency procedures for when it matters.
We also have in-house experts who can help us understand the human factor components that inform safety and design - from former employees of NASA to a hyperbaric medical adviser.
Phil Short, our Research Diving and Training Lead, wrote a fantastic update on the full-size Sentinel model and habitat simulator taking shape. Take a look to see how serious we are about testing.
The state-of-the-art training facility
I’ve mentioned the human factors. Now let’s finish by talking about the humans themselves.
A manufacturer of a plane knows that there’s not only a responsibility to engineer a safe plane, but to train the pilots that will fly the plane.
It’s no different in our world of subsea habitation.
We’re not talking about diving 20 meters or so, as you might on a honeymoon in Bali. We’re talking about going much deeper and for sustained periods.
That necessitates selecting divers with the right experience and attitude. Then putting those divers through a high-quality curriculum in order to become a qualified habitat diver.
Our campus is the place where that happens. The facility is equipped to design and test subsea equipment, and also to train the people who will use it. We have, for example, pressure testing facilities to help train people to live and work underwater (we repurposed these from the hyperbaric medical sector).
Along with the world-class training facility, we have world-class instructors and subject matter experts. These facilities and expertise combine to address some of biggest risks involved in diving at extreme depths.
Follow our journey
We want to make humans aquatic. Doing so means prioritizing that everyone resurfaces safely and can’t wait to dive back down.
If you want to follow our progress and read any future updates on our approach to safety, visit our Newsroom.