here at the san francisco bay naval
shipyard workers prepare Sealab 3 a
special habitat for ocean floor dwelling
to be used by the aquanauts of the
Navy's most ambitious undersea
experiment today already used in Sealab
to major modifications to the
cylindrical habitat were the addition of
two rooms to the ends of the central
section and an anchor ballast tank which
would allow the habitat to remain level
on the sloping ocean floor
once all systems had been successfully
tested in the dry environment a drydock
is flooded for the evaluation of
submerged tests of safety reliability
and performance needed for the life
support of the men who would live and
work in an out of Sealab during the deep
ocean experiment in the Pacific by
nightfall
Sealab was almost completely submerged
enabling an Aquanaut to exit from the
diving station and check out his
semi-closed breathing apparatus for have
managed to effectively explore his new
frontier
he must have ample mobility primary
objective of the Sealab 3 program is to
evaluate techniques than equipment being
developed and to extend man's
capabilities to the limits of the
continental shelf essential to this
capability is a deep diving system for
eventual use by the fleet the prototype
of such a deep diving system was built
into the support ship Elk River a vital
part of this system is the PTC or
personnel transfer capsules a
pressurized elevator needed to transport
divers to and from the ocean floor
dress-rehearsal site for the evaluation
of special tools and equipment used by
the salvage and construction team in
their parts of the ocean floor program
is held near Anacapa Island California
like a couple of ocean astronauts the
divers Don's special headgear that
provides protection two-way
communications and a breathing system
for life support at 600 feet is
breathing gas of helium and oxygen
incorrect mixtures is supplied by an
umbilical from the habitat fully dressed
the Aqua not must carry 140 pounds of
equipment their first task on entering
the water is to check out each other's
life-support system the 60 day ocean
floor program will consist of
experiments in physiology oceanography
construction search recovery use of
marine mammals and pelvic in this
experiment Aquanaut use a zipper to
adjust the amount of lift desired in a
variable buoyancy lift system since
salvage work demands heavy eating and
hauling this portable crane can lessen
their burden
because the cold water is numbing and
steps his energy special tools such as
this must be designed for the divers and
are evaluated in the actual ocean
environment a diver to attest and served
at the workbench where the performance
of fools is actually tested one of these
is an explosive stud drive using
gunpowder as a source of energy to drive
studs through one inch armor plate a
human factors experts note the time
needed to complete each task comparing
their reactions to other environments
like outer space a restraining belt is
worn by the aquanauts
since bullied weightlessness complicates
his work he tends to turn along with the
drill and if you hammer something the
reaction pushes him away at the same
time members of the construction team
were about to practice their part in the
ocean floor program to build a 15-foot
tall house on the sea bottom using
special lift devices and equipment they
will assemble three large concentric
iron rings into a dry storage and repair
facility
techniques learned in this experiment
can lead to construction of other larger
structures and will eventually be the
forerunner of major industrial and
research complexes on the continental
shelves of the world at Point Mugu
California another part of the ocean
floor program is in progress pre
aquanauts are introduced to a sea lion
named gimpy he is one of five marine
mammals trained to assist man in his
research in the death each underwater
mammal has its own talent the sea lion
constrict from the surface to 600 feet
in less than 30 seconds
homing on affordable buzzer Gympie is
rewarded and patiently waits for the
equi not to transfer ably from one part
of her harness to another this training
helps the man will accept tools mail and
geological samples when she eventually
acts as a messenger from the surface to
the equinoxes below also in training is
a purpose named Tuffy porpoises are the
brightest of the marine mammals and
Tuffy proved during the previous sea lab
to experiment that he could act like a
seagoing Saint Bernard
taking a life-saving line from a rescue
team to a lost Aquanaut with all
modifications completed the habitat is
placed on a barge and towed from the
Naval Shipyard at San Francisco to its
next stop Long Beach California
during its brief stay at the shipyard
the underwater capsule is loaded with
all the special equipment needed to make
a habitat a home the personal items
consumables owls and dry provision
meanwhile the surface support vessel Elk
River was departing from the San
Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard and heading
to the experiment site an ocean
engineering range on the leeward side of
San Clemente Island once positioned in a
five-point more the Elk River begins
final testing of the deep diving system
installed during its conversion a large
gantry crane lifts the pressurized
elevator and moves it forward or
lowering through the center well the PTC
must be closely controlled and monitored
or during the upcoming experiment if the
capsule loses its pressure the aquanauts
inside could suffer a fatal explosive
decompression
use of these capsules allows quick safe
transfer of aquanauts to and from the
ocean floor helium and oxygen flasks
mounted on the outside contain the
proper mixture of gases the diver breeze
during transit and while making
excursions from the PTC once saturated
with this inert gas the Aquanaut cannot
return to the surface to do so would
mean certain death he moves from his dry
capsule to the wet ocean surrounding it
able to come and go freely through an
invisible curtain no intermediate lock
is required because the pressure within
the ptc is the same as the surrounding
water
the salvage ship USNS gear tows the
fully loaded habitat on the last leg of
its journey from the shipyard at Long
Beach arriving at the experiment site it
awaits offloading by the large floating
crane the marine boss as the habitat is
pushed to the offloading site aquanauts
make final preparations diver umbilicals
are tied together and then wrapped
securely around special storage racks
near the diving station heavy wire
slings are prepared for the marine boss
lifting bridle now the large crane must
lift more than 300 tons of ocean floor
dwelling to Sealab resembling a railroad
tank car is almost 70 feet long and is
painted a bright yellow for underwater
visibility the conning tower gives
access while on the surface when
submerged Sealab measures 50 feet from
the top of the conning tower to the
bottom of its central anchor Club the
special support barge has been pulled
away and Sealab is lowered into the
ocean marine boss has done its job
and the final countdown begins the
habitat is gently towed to his lowering
position near the support ship Elk River
there it is more for installation of the
habitat umbilical and support equipment
divers inspect the habitat as it rests
in its more cables and fittings are
carefully checked
with Down Day approaching Paquin odds
and support personnel complete final
inspection of all deep-diving system
components inside a personnel transfer
capsule made it to its accompanying deck
decompression chamber an Aquanaut checks
the gas monitoring panel and
communications with other elements of
the system monitor control this is
castle 2 communications check over LOM
similar tests are being made between the
deck decompression chamber and the main
control console which is the nerve
center for the exacting process of
careful decompression needed to bring
men back to surface pressure from their
saturated die
Oh
and one of the control okay on turtle
life the next morning everything is in
readiness for the lowering procedure the
helium barge is alongside and the ys d
60 is hooked up and ready to lower
flooding of a ballast tank beneath the
conning tower is the first step for
lowering the habitat now almost a wash
divers secure the hatch of the conning
tower ii of free ballast tanks the upper
two tanks provide 9,000 pounds of
negative weight allowing the unmanned
Sealab to begin its descent the third
ballast tank is in the Anchor clump and
will be flooded as part of the habitat
opening procedure once it is safely on
the ocean floor divers enter the water
well Sealab is held at 25 feet for a
final visual check before the lowering
continues pressure of the gas within the
habitat is kept slightly greater than
that of the surrounding ocean to prevent
flooding as the habitat is slowly
lowered personnel on the westinghouse
support ship search tide ready they're
dry submersible deepstar for its first
observation dye
once in the water she will descend to
600 feet permitting her cielab
passengers to observe the final stages
of the lowering and actual touchdown go
ahead and plan the panning pan until one
time to a battle position during the
night a remote-controlled camera system
monitored the habitat while
closed-circuit television cameras
provided a close watch and the pressure
balance within Sealab early the next
morning pressure begins to drop
gas is somehow leaking from the habitat
immediately a conference is held the
only way to stop a leak is from inside
the decision is made to compress four of
the nine men more rapidly than planned
so the unbuttoning crew can get into the
habitat ahead of schedule
the aquanauts are given the go-ahead
okay I'd like to get all members of Team
one over here they're arriving at the
deck decompression station the four
aquanauts discussed the unbuttoning
procedure and receive their final
instructions from the diving officer
they enter the chamber for compression
to 600 feet at the rate of 4 feet per
minute it will take 2 and 1/2 hours for
their bodies to be equal to the same
pressure they will experience on the
ocean floor
Bastille the remaining five members of
Team One enter the other chamber for the
planned
15 hour saturation to death and to
undergo of physiological baseline
studies in the interim deepstar is
requested to make another descent to the
seafloor to try and accurately locate
the link and report back this
information is given to the four
aquanauts preparing to descend personnel
in the main control console area ensure
mixes of gas during saturation are
correct and keep track of the pressure
within the leaking habitat the five men
undergoing standard pressurization busy
themselves reviewing their assigned
tasks and discussing the problem facing
their teammates in the other chamber by
late afternoon pressure is equalized
between the decompression chamber and
its mated personnel transfer Campbell
last-minute details for the dive are
completed the four aquanauts check their
pressurized elevator before entering for
the long ride to the ocean floor
on the main deck of the support vessel
the gantry prepares to separate the
capsule from the deck decompression
chamber where this is no practice died
the seal on the hatch of the capsule
must hold as the aquanauts are living at
the same ambient pressure as that of the
ocean floor almost 280 pounds per square
inch 19 times greater than at sea level
carefully the capsule is swung over the
center well for the strenuous job of
attaching the downhaul wind which also
serves as a platform for the aquanauts
when they exit at 600 feet man's maximum
working depth in the sea until recently
was considered to be 380 feet for 30
minutes with hardhat diving equipment
the mark 2 system is designed to more
than double that death
the capsule end transfers to handling
davits used with the main strength power
communications cable which is the
aquanauts lifeline to the surface
as they descend slowly toward the
habitat the aquanauts report on their
progress because of changes in residents
brought about by the helium and their
synthetic atmosphere their voices sound
garbled and unearthly
ha
or camping
the leaks in the habitat are visible to
the aquanauts as they approach the ocean
floor gas is escaping through
penetration fittings in sea labs hull
and more gas must be pumped down from
the surface to keep the habitat from
flooding with their elevator on the
ocean floor aquanauts bharathan cannon
hook up their umbilicals and head for
the habitat they must flood the anchor
clump ballast tank ensure the habitat is
leveled and release gas to blow out the
skirt or area beneath the entrance to
the diving station before opening the
hatch ballast tank number three has been
flooded and the skirt has been blown
outside personnel watch Bob Barr through
closed-circuit TV he should now be able
to open the hatch
but is having trouble with his breathing
and must hit a bypass on his rig to
increase gas flow tired cold and
breathing heavily aren't decides to head
back to the castle
Mary cannon had already returned the
capsule is hauled to the surface the
aquanauts gratefully entered the warm
decompression chamber
but the problem has not been solved in
the pre-dawn darkness of the following
morning the decision is made to send
them em down on a second dye the leakage
is worse and must either be stopped or
the experiment aborted the equi not
returned to the personnel transfer
capsule for a second journey to the
hundred thousand death Barth and cannon
again head for the troubled habitat the
problem is apparent to them as they
approach the light helium oxygen
atmosphere of Sealab is bubbling out
into the sea for a second time Bart's
attempt to enter the door of his
underwater home is foiled water has
seeped back under the diving station
skirt and the hatch won't budge cold and
frustrated Bart swims for a crowbar
position nearby which can assist him in
forcing open the hatch
returning he sees his partner Barry
Kenan in trouble on the ocean floor
dropping the crowbar he rushes to
Barry's a cannon is shaking his mouth
pieces come loose allowing his vital
breathing gas to escape struggling with
the now unconscious body of his friend
Bart carries Barry to the diving station
letter dropping Barry up Marth tries
desperately to give him breathing gas
through the buddy breather regulator
carried for just such an emergency again
he tries still again he tries to force
the mouthpiece with vital gas into
Barry's mom suddenly bark himself begins
having trouble breathing his ears
ringing he feels as though he is going
to pass out blasting Barry he heads for
the capsule and health but he and his
teammates heroic efforts were to prove
futile Barry cannon was pronounced dead
on arrival at the Beck decompression
chamber
guiding operations have been suspended
and the on-scene commander is faced with
a real dilemma how is he to get the
habitat back to the surface it is still
leaking badly and has the added weight
of 17 tons of seawater in ballast tank
number three
aboard the ysd 60 engineers prepared to
make modifications to the counterweight
system in order to handle the additional
17 tons of weight to do this 20,000
pounds of additional weight is added to
the counterweight bringing its total to
about 35 thousand pound and the weaker
points in the raising system are either
bypassed or strengthened by on-the-spot
racing to prevent buckling the crane
boom and the midship pulley were
bypassed by cutting the FI beams to
permit the actual lift from this corner
of the ship with the lifting problem
solved the helium barge was running out
of gas the air compressors on the
support vessel couldn't keep ahead of
the leak an urgent call for help was
sent to a submarine with powerful air
compressors the question was that she
arrived in time to help
by nightfall the lift had begun and the
submarined iodine had arrived to handle
a pressure problem when the habitat was
at a hundred feet divers entered the
water to blow the ballast from number
three tank and to attach nylon lines to
guide Sealab into a clear area for
surfacing crews took up slack on the
guidelines while support divers man
small boat then suddenly gurgling and
gushing the habitat surged to the
surface safe after engineers gave her
eight thousand to one chance of ever
getting off the bottom
recovery of the habitat under emergency
conditions was a truly outstanding
performance it will in due time enable
us to complete all of the goals of
Sealab three programs while the
unfortunate accident stopped the
experiment far short of the goals we
were able to learn great deal from this
initial major step in particular we
identified several areas which require
detailed investigation before we can
consider the first hundred fathoms to a
bit master we plan to go ahead with a
series of special diets using this
system using a mark to diving system
without the habitat in order to solve
these problems and get some exact data
we will do this while the habitat is
being modified and repaired from it the
short excursion in the depth while it's
being refurbished with a particular aim
of making it resistant to the high
pressure helium and the low temperatures
to which it exposed actually the sea
lamprey experiment will mark a major
milestone in our progress into the deep
ocean it must be recognized however that
this is not the end both industry in the
nature must continue to seek the means
of diving deeper and longer and in
safety these are goals which very Karen
devoted his life it's up to us to make
them reality
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