CHAPTER III 



MINITAT PROJECT 



Richard A. Waller 

 Department of the Interior 

 Washington, D.C. 



INTRODUCTION 



TEKTITE I provided a clear demonstration of the advantages of extended 

 habitation within the marine environment for accomplishing various specific 

 research tasks which heretofore have only been marginally effective when 

 conducted from the surface, either by bounce diving or shipboard sampling. 

 The advantages afforded by allowing the marine scientists almost unlimited 

 opportunity for direct observation and study are minimized on some occasions, 

 however, by the limited range of activity imposed on the aquanaut-scientist 

 while working from a permanently moored underwater habitat. 



It became apparent during TEKTITE I that the advantages of a movable under- 

 water habitat which could be easily and quickly moved from site to site 

 during a single dive or a series of dives would provide far more flexibility 

 than a fixed habitat. An additional incentive to this approach was provided 

 by the speculation on the part of several physiologists that saturation 

 diving with oxygen/nitrogen mixtures should be possible to depths in excess 

 of 100 feet. If the speculation proved to be true, extended depth capa- 

 bility in saturation diving would render large portions of the shallow con- 

 tinental shelf accessible to exploration and study through in- situ techniques 

 without invoking the expense and other problems associated with helium gas 

 mixtures. 



Thus, the rationale for a movable habitat which could be relocated between an 

 established vertical gradient as well as along a horizontal plane appeared to 

 offer a logical course to follow beyond TEKTITE I. Within this framework a 

 prototype habitat project was scheduled as an adjunct to the TEKTITE II 

 program early in the planning. The following sections describe the habitat, 

 its support vessel, and the results of the effort. 



THE MINITAT 



The scaled-down habitat, illustrated in figures 1 and 2 , is a vertical cylinder 

 mounted on a pontoon catamaran which provides flotation during surface trans- 

 port and a self raising/lowering capability. An ambient pressure wet room is 

 connected to the underside of the pressure vessel and slightly recessed in the 

 open work deck of the catamaran. Primary services, such as power, atmospheric 

 gas, and fresh water were supplied from the surface support vessel R/V UNDAUNTED. 



The main chamber or pressure vessel is vertically oriented, eight feet in diame- 

 ter and 11 feet high overall. This section is structurally designed, according 

 to ASME Code, Section VIII, to serve as a decompression chamber at pressures up 

 to 165 FSW. The design and fabrication of the pressure vessel, piping, valves, 

 and fittings subject to system pressure are according to Section VIII and Section 

 IV of the ASME Boiler Code. All welds are 100 percent with 100 percent radio- 

 graphic inspection. Hydrostatic testing of the finished system was to one and 

 one-half times working pressure or 247 feet. 



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