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       #Post#: 3041--------------------------------------------------
       Watched a PBS show tonight
       By: AJ Date: February 12, 2019, 10:44 pm
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       "Sealab"
       I'd totally forgotten about the program. Way back in the 60's.
       Started roughly about the same time as the Space program.
       Experiments with different breathing mixes to allow divers to
       dive deeper, and turned into a leap into sea habitats. Even had
       Astronaut Scott Carpenter join up as an "Aquanaut". Had some
       amazing successes too. Incorporating helium into the breathing
       mixes negated the ill effects of too much oxygen at depths. They
       had real successes when in Bermuda, and had guys staying in
       habitat for over a month at over 200 feet down. They has easy
       access to the ocean via an open hatch in the bottom. The
       pressurized habitat kept the water out, and the breathing mix
       allowed the guys to swim around at will at depth.
       They moved to the Pacific with Sealab 3 and there the trouble
       ensued. They were at 600  and the temperatures were much colder.
       So cold that the divers couldn't stay outside for very long
       before the cold started making them numb and lethargic.
       Plus...there was literally no light at that depth except the
       lights on the habitat. The lights failed regularly and it took
       hours in the cold to replace/repair them. Then one of the
       Aquanauts started spasming while outside the habitat, spit out
       his breathing mouthpiece. Two other Aquanauts nearly died trying
       to save him. In the end, the guy made it back to the habitat but
       he died. Since it was a Navy program, it got shut down,
       investigations ensued, nobody went to jail, but the program got
       shutdown....Officially...
       So much valuable information was gleaned from the program
       though, the Navy sort of kept it alive...But off the books, so
       to speak. In fact, they outfitted a submarine with a smaller
       version of the habitat. Then they slipped that sub into a Soviet
       controlled bay, and sent divers deep using the breathing
       mixtures perfected by the program to attach a listening device
       on a Soviet undersea communications cable. Gathered all kinds of
       good stuff I suppose.....
       70% of our planet, the only one we got, is covered in
       water....We cannot know enough about it.
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