Blue Abyss, the world’s first commercial deep-sea-to-space test centre, is to a 50m-deep indoor training pool – which it claims is the world’s deepest – at a new £120 million centre in Bedfordshire.
As well as the deep pool, the centre will also including an astronaut training centre including parabolic flight capability, hypobaric and hyperbaric chambers and a human performance centre to enable divers, (and astronauts) to perform to their the peak potential.
The research and development centre – being built on a soon-to-close RAF site – will help to reduce risk, test operational procedures, improve performance and aid exploration in these environments.
Blue Abyss chief executive John Vickers – a former military diver instructor – said the aim was to improve performance training for advanced commercial diving skills and underwater robotics.
He added: “Offshore technology for the oil & gas and renewables industries will be tested in the pool, and hyperbaric chambers, providing a vital role in bringing new robotic and human aid technologies to market”.
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