Remembering Sealab 138
An anonymous reader writes "'Some people remember Sealab as being a classified program, but it was trying not to be,' says Ben Hellwarth, author of the new book Sealab: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor, which aims to 'bring some long overdue attention to the marine version of the space program.' In the 1960s, the media largely ignored the efforts of America's aquanauts, who revolutionized deep-sea diving and paved the way for the underwater construction work being done today on offshore oil platforms. It didn't help that the public didn't understand the challenges of saturation diving; in a comical exchange a telephone operator initially refuses to connect a call between President Johnson and Aquanaut Scott Carpenter, (who sounded like a cartoon character, thanks to the helium atmosphere in his pressurized living quarters). But in spite of being remembered as a failure, the final incarnation of Sealab did provide cover for a very successful Cold War spy program."
Helium atmosphere? (Score:5, Funny)
I guess that explains Hesh's voice.
Fignuts (Score:5, Funny)
Fignuts
Stimutacs (Score:5, Funny)
I remember THIS Sealab (Score:4, Funny)
I haven't forgotten (Score:5, Funny)
I remember Sealab 2021 [wikipedia.org] very well
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:5, Funny)
Space, sadly, doesn't even have oil exploration going for it.
I heard he's divorcing Heidi Klumlab . . . (Score:3, Funny)
If the media and a cereal company could turn Kim Kardashian's cross-dressing step-dad [brucejenner.com] into a symbol of American manhood, then Scott Carpenter's helium-induced impression of Felix the Cat could not really have been that big of a public relations problem.
Fond Memories (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:4, Funny)
You know, I really hate rational people sometimes....
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:5, Funny)
You guys laugh now, but of all places to find pockets of oil and natural gas in space, Mars is our closest workable candidate.
Really ? I think you'll find Uranus is a more prodigious source of natural gas.
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:3, Funny)
Istanbul: I can't find any evidence of this underwater hotel actually exiting either.
Not Constantinople?
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothing compared with the hate that the irrational can have for imaginary people. But most people in the real world simply don't like dealing with such complex issues.
Aquanauts?!? (Score:2, Funny)
Aquanaut. Water sailor. Isn't that a little redundant?
Re:The ocean frontier - not (Score:4, Funny)
Hang on... moon... space elevator... YES! Let's move the moon to a geostationary orbit and use it as the other anchor for a space elevator!
What could possibly go wrong?