Though this suit may look like one of the early Iron Man prototypes illustrated in the comics or like a spacesuit created by NASA to allow astronauts to survive in Mars, it is actually a suit that allows user to become a human submarine and travel to new depths underwater that cannot be explored in conventional suits.
The Exosuit costs $600,000, is 6.5 feet tall, weighs 530 pounds and is probably the greatest creation to come out of the deep-sea diving industry. Scientists will be using it this summer to explore the rarely visited depths of the ocean. The suit will be able to reach depths of 1,000 feet and will provide its pilot with a breathing time of 50 hours.
The 18 rotary joints will provide a great deal of mobility and even let the diver swim using their own power. Although, swimming isn’t a strong point for divers, there are thrusters that can allow them to maneuver anywhere underwater and even to the surface.
The suit will be used by Michael Lombardi this summer to explore and study the bio-luminescent fish that dwell deep in the ocean. Lombardi will be using an ROV which acts like an underwater vacuum cleaner and sweeps up specimens which are stored in cartridges and can be studied later. Scientists hope to discern unique patterns of light that the organisms use to identify each another in the dark.
Lombardi is excited about this new suit and says that it will allow him to study the specimens in more detail. Where previous suits only gave him seven minutes at a time to explore the great depths, the Exosuit will allow Lombardi to spend five hours underwater and give him a greater chance of discovering something completely new.
