Ben Franklin (PX-15)

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The Ben Franklin, also known as the Grumman/Piccard PX-15, was a manned underwater submersible built in 1968. It was the brainchild of explorer and inventor Jacques Piccard. The research vessel was designed to house a six-man crew for thirty days of oceanographic study in the depths of the Gulf Stream. NASA became involved, seeing this as an opportunity to study the effects of long-term, continuous close confinement, a useful simulation of long space flights.

The Ben Franklin was built between 1966 and 1968 high in the mountains of Switzerland by Piccard and the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, then disassembled and shipped to Florida. The 130 ton ship had no motor; it was designed to drift along at neutral buoyancy at depths between 600 and 2000 feet (180-610 m). It was powered by tons of lead batteries stored outside the hull. Its length was 48 feet 9 inches (14.9 m), with a beam of 21 feet 6 inches (6.6 m) and a height of 20 feet (6.1 m). Piccard insisted on 29 observation portholes, despite the objections of engineers over the inclusion of potentially fatal weak points.

It began its voyage on July 14, 1969, off Palm Beach, Florida, with Piccard as the mission leader. It resurfaced on August 14, 1444 miles away, 300 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After completing its first and only research mission, it was sold and did not sail again. The Ben Franklin now resides at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

[edit] External links

• HOW DEEP can they go? (nasa.gov)