LIFE UNDER THE SEA

Ocean engineering and technology company DEEP unveils Vanguard its pilot subsea human habitat providing extended access to the ocean for research, conservation, and training

“My background is engineering hardware for human space flight and deep-water robotically installed connectors for oil and gas infrastructure. There are parallels for what we are doing at DEEP and space flight – it's just the opposite direction. Both space the ocean need rigor, diligence, and safety.

--Norman Smith, CTO, DEEP

The first new subsea habitat of its kind to be built in almost 40 years was unveiled on October 30, 2025, in Miami Florida.

WATERTODAY learns more from Norman Smith, CTO and Phil Short, Research Diving and Training Lead

By Suzanne Forcese

A New Frontier

“One of my childhood heroes was Jacques Cousteau. I grew up captivated by his groundbreaking innovations and exploration of the underwater world,” Norman Smith said. “But today, the ocean often feels like an ignored realm. Large swaths of the ocean remain unexplored, and all kinds of wonders remain undiscovered. There’s an opportunity to pick up where Cousteau left off. To explore the subsea environment and give humans sustained access to the ocean at an unprecedented scale.”

How Much of the Ocean Has Been Explored?

The Seabed 2030 initiative is working to map the ocean floor. In June 2025, it reported it had charted just over 27% of the world’s underwater terrain, a remarkable achievement for a project that began in 2017.

According to Phil Short, habitats are not two dimensional. The average depth of our oceans is 3,600m. So, while it’s often said that the ocean covers more than 70% of the planet, that only takes account of the area on the surface. In terms of total space, oceans in fact make up more than 99% of the volume of Earth.

“Besides, mapping the seabed is not the same as going down there and conducting research. Even where we have done that, the technology available to date has severely restricted the amount of time people can spend at depth and so has limited the ability to conduct research and make new discoveries,” Short said.

By contrast, there has until now been no way of enabling a sustained human presence in the part of the ocean known as the Blindspot Zone (spoiler alert: this is about to change).

The Blindspot Zone

The Blindspot Zone is the depth of the ocean between 50 and 200 metres. Light penetration is lower here than it is closer to the surface but is still sufficient to support photosynthesis. It’s a blind spot because current technologies (submersible, diving, saturation diving) don’t provide efficient or sustained access to this part of the ocean.

The difficulty accessing the Blindspot Zone for sustained periods represents an ongoing loss to human knowledge. The unique conditions of marine environments have led to the evolution of organisms that produce chemicals that can’t be found on land. Some of these have been used to develop new medicines, but there will be many others waiting undiscovered.

The Blindspot Zone also contains all the world’s mineral, resource, and fisheries rights, 96% of coral reef systems, more than 90% of all Marine Protected Areas, and over 70% of shipwrecks, salvage, and cultural sites,” Short continues.

The entire continental shelf lies within the Blindspot Zone – an area of seabed bigger than Russia and Canada combined.

“The health, economic, and cultural benefits of achieving sustained human access to these areas is incalculable.”

Smith adds, "DEEP is changing all this by pioneering a new era of underwater living. Vanguard is our pilot subsea human habitat designed for four crew, for medium-duration missions of seven or more days, offering extended time for discovery and research without the need to re-surface.”

How Does Vanguard Work?

At a high level, there are three main parts to Vanguard: the living chamber, the dive center, and the foundation. As the name suggests, the living chamber is where the crew will eat, sleep, work and perform various daily tasks. It consists of a pressure vessel, designed to withstand the pressure of the ocean water and keep the occupants safe and dry.

Attached to one end of the living chamber is the dive center. This area has space to change in and out of dive gear, and a moon pool (an opening to the ocean) for entry and exit.

The living chamber and dive center are attached to a foundation, which itself securely mounts to the ocean floor to secure the habitat from waves and storms.

At the surface, Vanguard is supported by a buoy. This floating structure is tethered to the habitat and provides various support services to the crew, such as compressed air, power, and communications to the surface. Crews will come and moor to the buoy, dive down to Vanguard and enter through its moon pool.

Is Vanguard Safe?

“Safety is factored into everything we do. From the early concept stage, through to operating the assembled habitat. Our commitment to classify Vanguard with a leading classification society is the clearest demonstration of this,” Smith said.

“Vanguard will be the first subsea human habitat to be classed under the rigorous DNV ruleset. Throughout its development, we have worked closely with DNV – an international quality assurance and risk management company – for this third-party expert assessment that Vanguard is safe to operate.”

What’s Next?

“Ultimately, Vanguard represents the beginning of a larger vision – a global network of underwater habitats that could give humans a permanent presence in the ocean. Each mission will build upon the last, refining technology and operations until living beneath the sea becomes routine. By overcoming the limitations of time and depth that have long hindered exploration, DEEP’s initiative invites us to rediscover our planet and form a more profound connection with the ocean that sustains life on Earth, “Smith concludes.

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