Table 1. Characteristics of U.S. habitats—(Continued) 
Name Decompression Size Volume Weight Surface support 
Ete Lb 
AEGIR ................... Internal-surface Two 8x15’ cylinders and 2,965 449,000 72’ support ship HOLOKAI 
10’ wetroom on 8x42’ for power and communica- 
barge. tions; otherwise self suf- 
ficient. 
EDALHAB ......... Surface chamber One 8’x11’ cylinder 560 28,000 Shore or R/V LULU. Car- 
ried and lowered by LULU. 
HYDROLAB .... Internal-bottom One 8’x16’ cylinder with 730 134,000 23’ unmanned life support 
lockout trunk. buoy; daily resupply by 
small boat. 
LAKELAB ......... a= 10’ hexagonal, 7’ high 400+ 9,000 Shore; intended as part of 
potential larger system. 
PRINUL .............. Internal-surface Two 8’x19’ cylinders inside 3,150 267,000 36* unmanned life support 
or bottom. 20’x48’ barge. buoy; tows at 5 knots. 
PORTALAB ... — 7'x11’ wide ‘‘mailbox”’ 143 —_ Shore. 
SEALAB | ........... —_ 9’x40’ cylinder = — Integrated with a ‘‘Texas 
tower.”’ 
TEKTITE ............ Surface chamber Two 12’x18’ vertical cylin- 1,975 310,000 Shore 
ders on 15’x34’ base. 
Table 2. Status of U.S. habitats 
Name Owner Location Remarks 
AEGIRGge eee MaKall RANGE is.n.cscean neenssinseioace Hawaii. se _ Inactive; last used by Navy during 
1971 at 200 ft. in Hawaii. 
EDALHAB. .................. University of New Hampshire . (With owner) Inactive; last used by NOAA-MUS&T 
during project FLARE in January- 
February 1972. 
HYDROLAB Perry Foundation .. . Freeport, In use. Under NOAA-MUS&T lease 
Bahamas. through June 1973. 
PRINUL ... Puerto Rico Undersea R&D Co. and Puerto Rico Operational fall 1972; NOAA-MUS&T 
Marine Resources Development scheduled for nine diver missions 
Foundation. through June 1973. 
SEALAB I?............... U.S. Navy . Panama City, Used for Navy training at ‘‘Texas 
Fla. Tower” location. t 
TEKTITE ........... ee General? Electric; 2... Philadelphia, Inactive; last used for TEKTITE II 
Pa. during 1970 at 50 ft. in Virgin 
Islands. 
LAKELAB ° . University of Michigan 0. Lake Michigan New; periodic use and checkout by 
Univ. of Michigan; planned as part 
or larger system; small for opera- 
tional use. 
PORTALAB * . University of Rhode Island ...... Kingston, R.I. ......... New; periodic use and checkout by 
Univ. of Rhode Island; small for 
operational use. 
‘ SEALAB I is not considered usable for scientific missions. 
* Considered of very limited use for scientific missions. 
of the deficiencies of previous habitats designed for 
use in its depth range. 
The Navy SEALAB I is currently mounted below 
a “Texas Tower” located in the Gulf of Mexico off 
the Naval Coastal Systems Laboratory at Panama 
City, Fla. It is used for training by the State Uni- 
versity of Florida and is not suitable for undersea 
research. AEGIR and TEKTITE, which were early 
ventures away from the living-space concept of 
habitats toward a more laboratory-oriented concept, 
are inactive due to the reorientation of Navy pro- 
grams a few years ago and the former lack of a 
civil agency focal point and moderate funding source 
for continued operations. EDALHAB was designed 
and built by the Engineering Design and Analysis 
Laboratory of the University of New Hampshire 
in the late 1960’s. It is less sophisticated than HY- 
DROLAB, AEGIR, or TEKTITE.. EDALHAB te- 
quires either shore support or surface support such 
as the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s R/V 
LULU (mother ship to the submersible ALVIN). 
Two other new habitats have come into being re- 
cently, the University of Michigan’s LAKELAB and 
the University of Rhode Island’s PORTALAB. 
