One of the first things Joseph Dituri wants to do after 100 days underwater is to watch the sunset. The American biomedical researcher and former naval officer spent more than three months as part of an experiment in a small underwater hotel at a depth of about nine meters, on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. He returned to the surface on Friday. The researcher previously broke the record, which stood at 73 days, but that was not enough for him.
Dituri (55) conducted experiments on himself for hours every day to monitor how the human body reacts to prolonged exposure to high pressure. Dr. Deep Sea, as he calls himself, took blood, urine and saliva samples and performed electrocardiograms, lung function tests, blood pressure tests and hearing tests. The air pressure inside the capsule was 70 percent higher than at the surface of the water: all the surrounding water compressed the air. Unlike a submarine, the pressure in Dituri’s cabin was not kept equal to the pressure above water.
The underwater hotel, Jules’ Undersea Lodge in the Florida Keys, is normally bookable for everyone: overnight stays are bookable from 1,125 dollars, more than 1,000 euros. During his hundred days, Dituri had two rooms and a common room, filled with compressed air, equipped with a large window and good for about nine square meters of usable floor space. He prepared his food, such as salmon and eggs, in a microwave oven, because open fires were taboo due to the high oxygen percentage in the cabin due to the risk of fire.
Swimming round
Dituri sometimes felt lonely, he told the American channel CNN. “People need interaction, like a hug or hand.” He was not completely alone: he occasionally received visitors. To distract himself, he sometimes went out of the capsule to swim a circle with diving equipment. Furthermore, Dituri taught thousands of school children from his underwater residence via his laptop, about subjects related to the underwater world.
Dituri’s 100 days in a tight space with little human contact could also come in handy for astronauts going to Mars in a while. Those astronauts will also live in a small space for a longer period of time. But then twice as long: a one-way ticket to Mars takes seven months.
Experiments like Dituri’s are not entirely new. In the 1960s, people also slept in underwater enclosures. The first was built in 1962 and was the size of a Volkswagen van: the Conshelf. It was designed by Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer with the characteristic red cap, who did not stay at the Conshelf himself. That was too dangerous. In 1965, American astronaut Scott Carpenter spent a month at a depth of 60 meters in the US Navy’s Sealab 2, where he tested equipment, among other things. In order to safely bridge the air pressure difference at the end of his stay, Carpenter had to inhale a special air mixture, mainly containing helium. With unintentionally funny consequences: when President Lyndon Johnson telephoned him to congratulate him on his achievement, Carpenter was left alone talk back in a Donald-Duck-like voice.
Despite such previous experiments, scientists still have questions about what exactly high pressure does to the human body. During his stay, Dituri noticed that the high pressure made everyday things more difficult, such as urinating. The actual effects of Dituri’s time in the underwater cabin will have to be seen in the near future. After his return to the surface – through a strict safety protocol, because ascent too quickly from deep water can lead to paralysis or even death – doctors from the research team will carefully compare his post-mission health with his pre-mission condition.