First manned underwater habitat (Multi-day)
Last updated: March 31, 2020 at 3:45 am
1962 | Conshelf I — Albert Falco and Claude Wesly became the world’s first multi-day aquanauts by spending seven days in the Diogenes habitat at a depth of 10 m (33 ft). They were also the first aquanauts to live on the seafloor. The experiment supervised by Jacques-Yves Cousteau off the Frioul Archipelago near Marseille began on September 14. Falco and Wesly spent an average 19 hours inside the habitat and five hours on scuba conducting various assignments. The breathing gas was air. The experiment was known in French as Précontinent I.
“A new species of human is evolving, Homo aquaticus.” — Jacques-Yves Cousteau, 1962
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Conshelf I took place only one week after Robert Sténuit became the world’s first aquanaut.
Albert Falco. Capitaine de la Calypso. 1991
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Jeffrey Gallant is the Editor-in-Chief and Records Keeper of the Diving Almanac. He is also a contributing editor of DIVER Magazine, and the scientific director of the Greenland Shark and Elasmobranch Education and Research Group (GEERG). Jeffrey started diving in 1982.
