414 



Electric Company and is remarkably similar to the command and service module 

 of the Apollo vehicle. It is composed of two connected vertical cylinders 18-feet 

 high by 12-1/2 feet in diamieter mounted on a rectangular base. Although the 

 Navy's Seabees have been responsible for placemient and support of the Tektite on 

 the bottom, other federal agencies involved are: National Aeronautics and Space 

 Administration, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, the National Park Service 

 and the United States Geological Survey. The National Park Service is involved 

 because the waters surrounding land on St. John make up a national land and under- 

 water park. The four marine scientists will conduct extensive studies of marine 

 life and geology and the mien themselves will be subjects of intense physiological 

 and psychological examination, as they live isolated from the surface under sat- 

 uration diving conditions. General Electric is the primie contractor. 



Somie of the observations of the scientists will be of value to geologists in 

 providing clues as to where to seek petroleum or other mineral deposits, and sonar 

 will be tested for fishery applications as well as to determiine the effectiveness for 

 differentiating between fish species. Major emphasis of the ocean bottom studies 

 will be on marine animal behavior and habitats as well as how these animals inter- 

 act with their environnnent. Other studies will include miarine geology, underwater 

 nnapping, and monitoring of various oceanographic phenomena. 



Another miajor purpose is to determine how men function in prolonged is- 

 olation and confinement in an effort to adapt the knowledge through long duration 

 space missions, such as the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), being planned by 

 the Air Force and NASA. Both the Air Force and NASA in the future hope to be 

 able to ferry replacement crews to orbiting vehicles in space, with smaller and 

 less complicated and less expensive boosters. Spacecraft thus, permanent 

 orbiting spacecraft may be used indefinitely rather than being discarded after each 

 mission. The Navy is also interested because it is studying the feasibility of 

 placing submarine detection stations along the continental shelf which could be 

 either mianned or periodically serviced by divers. 



UNDERWATER RESEARCH AND WORK VEHICLES - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 



Heretofore, we have been referring to underwater manned vehicles as 

 underwater research vehicles because they have been largely experimental or 

 built as one-of-a-kind for a specific purpose in underwater research, exploration, 

 or salvage. Few of these have been profitable for their builders, but many of them 

 have recorded some extraordinary achievements and the development of new and 

 more useful types seemis to have accelerated. We are now beginning to see the 

 appearance of some second generation manned submersibles which are capable of 

 being put to work on a truly economic basis. These submersibles offer pronnise of 

 quanity production, particularly for Work on the continental shelf, in the offshore 

 petroleumi industry and in underwater search, exploration, as well as, pipeline and 

 cable maintenance, salvage and etc. In past issues of this report, we have described 

 how essentially research vessels performed somie amazing feats when .requisitioned 

 for the search for the atom;ic bomb off the coast of Spain and to search for the U. S. 

 Navy submarine. Thresher. We believe the following itemis about what we consider 

 second generation or working submersibles should be of significant interest to 



