Astronaut Training

In a rapidly growing space industry, with more private ventures than ever before and NASA planning its return to the Moon, the need for innovation in space habitation is steadily increasing (Landon et al., 2023). Also, in the context of astronaut training, the habitat can provide great value as current options for analog training habitats are extremely limited. By simulating isolated and extreme environments similar to those encountered during space missions, underwater habitats can provide valuable insights into the physical and psychological challenges faced by astronauts during long-term missions due to its similar small, closed environment, as well as the necessary advances in technology and engineering, ultimately contributing to the success of future space missions (Geological Society of America, 2011; Landon et al., 2023).

Underwater Science

The accelerating degradation of the natural environment presents significant risks to the access of future generations to the invaluable goods and services offered by marine ecosystems. In order to combat climate change and biodiversity loss in the ocean, it is crucial to establish long-term marine observatories. However, these observatories often imply high costs since research vessels are the sole multi-purpose platform for comprehensive process-based exploration of the sea in four dimensions. Therefore, the proposed development of underwater habitats for humans can demonstrate new standards for ocean exploration, long-term monitoring, and technology development and to acquire the essential knowledge needed for the sustainable utilization of the sea (Sebens et al., 2013).

TRL Growth Platform

It will be a technology test platform to increase TRL levels for human-rated spaceflight hardware and technology for underwater environments.

Examples include:
Habitation countermeassures for long-duration spaceflight;
Respiration, growth and carbon sequestration in plankton (with novel processing of samples in-situ);
Drivers of oxygen dynamics at the interface between seabottom and water column;
Marine habitat dynamics under multiple pressures (warming, acidification, noise, light, etc.);
Adaptive sampling with autonomous and robotic devices (e.g., ROVs, autonomous cameras, etc.);
Long-term monitoring of underwater environments in four dimensions.