“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
That’s a quote from the legendary deep sea explorer Jacques Cousteau.
And it’s a quote that truly sums up man’s obsession with the ocean’s depths, an environment
we still know so little about.
The past, present, and future of ocean exploration kind of comes down to one thing: human bodies
have no business being underwater.
But that hasn’t stopped inventors and explorers from finding ways to conquer the ocean frontier.
What we think of as modern ocean exploration began in 1942 when Jacques Cousteau, alongside
engineer Emile Gagnan, who invented a system that would supply divers with compressed air
when they breathed underwater.
They called it the Aqua-Lung, but it later became know as a “self-contained underwater
breathing apparatus” or "SCUBA" for short.
The invention was a giant leap forward for underwater explorers, especially when compared
to older technologies.
From the 1600s to the 1800s, diving equipment of various iterations was developed and tested.
There were diving bells that provided divers with a limited supply of air underwater, bathyspheres
which were rudimentary submersibles, and primitive diving suits.
However, none of these were really ideal for exploring, largely because they were incredibly
dangerous...many people died using all these devices.
SCUBA diving allowed explorers to go deeper than ever before...though “deep” is still
a pretty relative term.
Most scuba divers can reach depths of 130 ft, but when you consider the deepest part
of the ocean is approximately 36,000 feet, scuba divers are really only skimming the
surface.
So what’s holding divers back?
The answer is pressure.
For every 33 feet we descend underwater, the pressure exerted on our bodies increases by
14.5 pounds per square inch.
At the very deepest part of the ocean, the pressure would be equivalent to one person
bearing the weight of 50 jumbo jets.
But that’s not the only problem divers contend with.
During deep ocean dives, inert gasses like nitrogen dissolve in human tissue from the
diver's air tank.
As he or she ascends to the surface, this nitrogen is released from the tissues as bubbles,
which can block blood flow around the body.
This condition, known as decompression sickness, can be deadly.
Divers can reduce these risks by not diving too deep, not ascending too quickly, and not
spending too much time underwater.
However, some divers have to spend a long time underwater, like those who fix deep sea
equipment, and aquanauts, who collect scientific data in underwater laboratories.
To reduce the risk of decompression sickness, their only option is to stay in an underwater
hyperbaric chamber for a month so they can do back to back dives.
This small vestibule can replicate air pressures at various depths, so users’ bodies are
primed for long dives.
But there may be a way around that cumbersome process.
Spurred by the desire for greater control and freedom underwater, a Canadian company
invented this.
It’s an Exosuit.
It’s essentially a one-man submarine with articulated joints for flexibility and thrusters
to propell the diver through the water.
Most importantly, the suit enables the wearer to maintain surface pressure for up to 1,000
ft.
That means no hyperbaric chambers and no decompression sickness.
Scientists are excited to use the Exosuit to discover new marine species, uncover lost
shipwrecks and more broadly, to bring man one step closer to finally mastering the ocean
frontier.
Even though we learn more about the ocean each day there is still an awful lot we don’t
know.
Click here to watch this episode of TestTube+ to find out exactly what we do and don't know
about our world’s oceans.
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