Tektite habitat
The Tektite habitat was an underwater laboratory which was the home to divers during Tektite I and II programs. The Tektite program was the first scientists-in-the-sea program sponsored nationally. The habitat capsule was placed in Great Lameshur Bay, Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands in 1969 and again in 1970.[1][2]
Habitat
The Tektite habitat was designed and built by General Electric Company Space Division at the Valley Forge Space Technology Center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.[citation needed] The Project Engineer who was responsible for the design of the habitat was Brooks Tenney, Jr. Tenney also served as the underwater Habitat Engineer on the International Mission, the last mission on the Tektite II project.[citation needed] The Program Manager for the Tektite projects was Dr. Theodore Marton at General Electric.[citation needed] The habitat appeared as a pair of silos: two white metal cylinders 12.5 feet (3.8 m) in diameter and 18 feet (5.5 m) high, joined by a flexible tunnel and seated on a rectangular base in 43 feet (13 m) depth of water.[citation needed]
Tektite I
On 28 January 1969 a detachment from Amphibious Construction Battalion 2 augmented by an additional 17 Seabee divers from both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets as well as the 21st NCR began the installation of the habitat in Great Lameshur Bay in the
Much of the research for Tektite I centered on humans in this new environment. Topics investigated would include: biology (blood changes, sleep patterns, oxygen toxicity),[5][6][7] decompression and decompression sickness,[4] microbiology[8][9] and mycology.[10]
Tektite II
The United States Department of the Interior coordinated Tektite II, with part of the funding coming from NASA, which was interested in the psychological study of the scientific teams working in closed and restricted environments, similar to that of spacecraft on long missions. A team of Behavioral Observers from the University of Texas at Austin, led by Dr. Robert Helmreich, were tasks to record round the clock activities of the aquanauts by Cc TV.
The missions were carried out in the spring and summer of 1970 in Great Lameshur Bay, St. John Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, at a depth of 43-ft. Tektite II comprised ten missions lasting 10–20 days with four scientists and an engineer on each mission. The fifth mission, designated Mission 6-50, was the first all-female saturation dive team. The elite team of scientist-divers included Renate Schlentz True of Tulane, team leader Sylvia Earle, Ann Hurley Hartline and Alina Szmant, graduate students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Margaret Ann "Peggy" Lucas Bond, a Villanova electrical engineering graduate who served as Habitat Engineer. The Tektite II missions were the first to undertake in-depth ecological studies from a saturation habitat.[2]
Medical and human research oversight for Tektite II was well documented in a series of reports covering a project overview,
Tektite III
Tektite III (Project Tektite) was a wholly owned[by whom?] and operated California 501 C(3) Non-Profit Corporation.[dubious ] Harold C. Ross was Project Manager. When Tektite II ended General Electric placed the habitat in storage in Philadelphia. A group of interested parties purchased the habitat from General Electric for $1.00 with the stipulation it would be removed from the GE storage facility.[citation needed] The habitat was trucked across the United States to Fort Mason in San Francisco where it was placed on display. Attempts were made to refurbish the habitat so it could be used in San Francisco Bay as a teaching tool.
By 1980 the habitat was fully restored and certified to be used underwater, but funds for actually submerging and operating the habitat again were not available. While the habitat was on display at Fort Mason, many school children were taken through the habitat free of charge by volunteers. Unfortunately lack of funds ended the project and the habitat was moved to storage along the Oakland Estuary[citation needed] in 1984. After several years, the habitat again deteriorated. In 1991 the habitat was dismantled by welding school students and the metal was recycled.[26]
Ecology
There were nine studies on the
- influence of herbivoreson marine plants
- bio-acoustic studies
- observations on cleaner shrimps
- isopodsassociated with reef fishes
- behavior of reef fishes in relation to fish pots
- bioturbation by the sand tilefish
- escape response in a damsel fish
- nocturnal-diurnalchangeover in activity patterns, and
- space resource-sharing
Physiology
A goal of the Tektite program was to prove that saturation diving techniques in an underwater laboratory, breathing a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere could be safely and efficiently accomplished at a minimal cost.[2][4]
Lambertsen's "Predictive Studies Series" that started with Tektite I in 1969 and ended in 1997, researched many aspects of human physiology in extreme environments.[7]
See also
- Underwater habitat – Human habitable underwater enclosure filled with breathable gas
References
- ^ PMID 5438496.
- ^ a b c d Collette, BB (1996). "Results of the Tektite Program: Ecology of coral-reef fishes. In: MA Lang, CC Baldwin (Eds.) The Diving for Science…1996, "Methods and Techniques of Underwater Research"". Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences Sixteenth Annual Scientific Diving Symposium, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Archived from the original on April 15, 2013. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
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- ^ PMID 5155147.
- PMID 5155127.
- PMID 5541094.
- ^ PMID 15233158. Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-30.)
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link - PMID 4392833.
- PMID 4392834.
- PMID 4393404.
- PMID 4653767.
- PMID 4653769.
- PMID 4653762.
- PMID 4653764.
- PMID 4655601.
- PMID 4653765.
- PMID 4653766.
- PMID 4143923.
- PMID 4653768.
- PMID 4143922.
- PMID 4653760.
- PMID 4675966.
- PMID 4653761.
- PMID 4347306.
- PMID 4653763.
- ^ Tektite Underwater Habitat Museum - Tektite III (archived from the original) - Note that this page states: "Web page text edited and revised with permission from James W. Miller and Ian G. Koblick's book: Living and Working in the Sea, 1995.
Further reading
- Collette, B.B. and S.A. Earle. (Eds.). 1972. Results of the Tektite Program: Ecology of coral-reef fishes. Los Angeles Co. Nat. Hist. Mus. Sci. Bull. 14. 180 p.
- Severn, Stacey for Spaceflight Insider. 2013. NASA's Tektite II Undersea Habitat: And Interview With Aquanaut & Engineer Peggy Lucas Bond