An
Aquanaut is any individual who remains underwater, exposed to the ambient
pressurePressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...
, long enough to come into equilibrium with his or her breathing media. Usually this is done in an
underwater habitatUnderwater habitats are underwater structures in which people can live for extended periods and carry out most of the basic human functions of a 24-hour day, such as working, resting, eating, attending to personal hygiene, and sleeping...
on the seafloor for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface. The term is often restricted to scientists and academics, though there were a group of military aquanauts during the
SEALABSealab is a word used to describe underwater habitats.*SEALAB I, II and III, underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy*Sealab 2020, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about an underwater research base that aired in 1972 in the United States...
program. Commercial Divers in similar circumstances are referred to as
Saturation DiversSaturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness when they work at great depth for long periods of time....
. An aquanaut is distinct from a submariner, in that a submariner is confined to a moving underwater vehicle such as a
submarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
that holds the water pressure out. Aquanaut derives from the Latin word
aqua ("water") plus the Greek
nautes ("sailor"), by analogy to the similar construction "
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
".
The first human aquanaut was
Robert SténuitRobert Pierre André Sténuit is a Belgian journalist, writer, and underwater archeologist. In 1962 he spent 24 hours on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea in the submersible "Link Cylinder" developed by Edwin Link, thus becoming the world's first aquanaut.- Early career :Sténuit began spelunking...
, who lived on board a tiny one-man cylinder at 200 feet for 24 hours in September 1962 off
VillefrancheVillefranche is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:Many French towns are called Villefranche , mostly in the south of France...
on the
French RivieraThe Côte d'Azur, pronounced , often known in English as the French Riviera , is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France, also including the sovereign state of Monaco...
. Military aquanauts include Robert Sheats, Shorty Lyons, Mike Meisky, Billie L. Coffman, George Dowling, Bill Tolbert, Al Waterfield, and Wally Jenkins, author Robin Cook, and astronauts
Scott CarpenterMalcolm Scott Carpenter is an American engineer, former test pilot, astronaut, and aquanaut. He is best known as one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959....
and
Alan ShepardAlan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...
. Civilian aquanaut
Berry L. CannonBerry Louis Cannon was an American aquanaut who served on the SEALAB II and III projects of the U.S. Navy. Cannon died of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair SEALAB III...
died of carbon dioxide poisoning during the
U.S. NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
's SEALAB III project.
Scientific aquanauts include Richard Cooper, Stephen Neudecker, Jonathan Helfgott, Robert Dill,
Sylvia EarleSylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...
, Ian Koblick, Neil Monney, Chris Olstad,
Joseph MacInnis,
John Perry,
Harold "Wes" Pratt (on whom the character "Winch" in
JawsJaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
was based), Phillip Sharkey, Alina Szmant, Bill High, Matthew Morgan, Steven Miller, Morgan Wells,
C. Lavett Smith and about 700 others, including the crewmembers of
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's
NEEMONEEMO, an acronym for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, is a NASA program for studying human survival in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration....
missions at the
AquariusThe NOAA Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, adjacent to Conch Reef. It is one of the few underwater research facilities in the world dedicated to science...
underwater laboratory.
External links