Meetup icon

What is the
Community
Submersibles
Project?

We’re making deep sea exploration by submersible available to the not-rich wonderers of the world, with our collectively operated submersibles, and the first public sub pilot training program!

The Community Submersibles Project is 300-hearts-strong and growing, and we’re building a community of submersible enthusiasts, makers, mechanics, fabricators, engineers, dreamers and doers who want to make ocean exploration accessible to all! We own two manned submersibles, Fangtooth and Noctiluca!

Submersibles are not just for war and science. We want to emphasize wonder and encourage people to seek out and value awe as a fundamental human experience.
Using the submersibles to show what we have yet to learn about life on earth, we can reveal what audacious feats humans are capable of when we are driven by deep curiosity.

Our missions

01

Grow interest in ocean exploration through direct experience with submersibles.

02

Open access to submersible diving and engineering by allowing members to work on and operate different types of submersibles.

03

Improve submersible diving safety and engage a broader audience of submersible enthusiasts through new training and education programs.

04

Contribute to submersible culture and community of explorers through art, science, media and gatherings that showcase the incomparable experience of exploring the deep sea.

What is a Manned Submersible ?

A human-operated, small craft for underwater exploration, usually of deeper waters than scuba divers can reach.

The crew sits inside a pressure hull and can peer out of viewports, while life-support systems add oxygen and remove carbon dioxide from the air so that the crew can stay at depth for hours.

Submersibles may be used for just observation, or may be equipped with scientific instruments like manipulator arms, slurp guns, environmental sensors, hydrophones and video cameras.

What’s it Like to Dive in a Submersible?

Inner Space travel...

A submersible dive is like going gently into space, if space was completely saturated with glowing, magical life.

As mostly land-bound creatures with the occasional foray into the shallows, our senses are unprepared for the surreal experience of entering the deep expanse. The window ports disappear into the water as you descend. The chaotic soundscape of the surface dissolves into a still, rich resonance within the chamber of your spaceship. And then…life!

A dazzling vertical parade of strange and marvelous life forms enter the frame of your viewport. Rainbow bells cast nets of glowing dots into a perfect spiral and then collapse and shoot off in a blur. Tiny eels so thin that their bodies ribbon in the wind as they swim through still water. Weird blobs and glowing things of unimaginable diversity spin towards you, zoom around, shoot things out of their bodies, change colors and disappear. The impossible hues, shapes, textures and movements of never-before-seen creatures and alien landscapes astound you. The desert you imagined is actually a thick soup of teeming life.

You experience a total and profound awe confronted with such extreme novelty on your own planet. The nearness of its mysteries expands you.

Support us on GoFundMe!
join the ocean revolution!