About the Atlantica Undersea Colonies Project
and the League of the New Worlds

 
The Atlantica Undersea Colonies Project stands as one of the most ambitious endeavors in human exploration, a bold quest to extend civilization into the uncharted frontiers of Earth's oceans. Spearheaded by bioengineer, aquanaut, and explorer Dennis Chamberland, the project seeks to establish the first permanent human settlement beneath the waves, transforming the ocean from a realm of transient adventure into a domain of enduring habitation. Born in 1951 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Chamberland's fascination with undersea worlds was not born of whimsy but of a profound conviction that humanity's future lay in mastering the three-dimensional expanse of the seas—a territory covering nearly three-quarters of the planet, yet devoid of any permanent human presence.

 
As Chamberland would later articulate in his seminal 2007 book Undersea Colonies, "Of all one hundred billion humans who have ever lived, not a single one has gone to live permanently undersea. While we have had the technology to settle this vast, three dimensional domain for over half a century, it remains empty of outposts, colonies and cities—or even of a single settler."

 
This history traces the project's origins from Chamberland's youthful dreams through his groundbreaking NASA work, the evolution of the Trident Project into Atlantica Expeditions, and the visionary blueprint laid out in Undersea Colonies, culminating in ambitious plans that continue to inspire discussions on oceanic stewardship and human expansion.

 
Dennis Chamberland's journey into the abyss began far from any coastline, amid the rolling plains of Oklahoma. As a college student at Oklahoma State University in 1972, the 21-year-old Chamberland orchestrated his first audacious bid for undersea settlement: an attempt to establish a rudimentary habitat beneath the surface of Tenkiller Ferry Lake in eastern Oklahoma. This early experiment, though rudimentary and ultimately short-lived, encapsulated the core of Chamberland's lifelong philosophy. He envisioned "Aquatica"—the habitable undersea regions of Earth—and its future inhabitants as "Aquaticans," permanent settlers unbound by the pull of the surface world.

 
Drawing from the era's burgeoning interest in space exploration, Chamberland saw parallels between the final frontier above and the blue one below, and while at NASA he coined terms like "Resource Recovery" to reframe waste processing in life support systems as a sustainable cycle essential for both lunar bases and ocean floors.

 
This initial foray was more than youthful experimenation; it was a harbinger. Chamberland's naval service as a U.S. Navy officer, followed by graduate studies and a role as a civilian nuclear engineer specializing in radiological controls for submarines, honed his technical acumen. By the late 1980s, he had published influential pieces, including a 1986 cover story on genetic engineering in Christianity Today and an in-depth interview with General William Westmoreland on Vietnam in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. These writings showcased his ability to bridge science, ethics, and exploration—a skill that would define the Atlantica Project.

 
In 1991, while deepening his involvement in NASA's life sciences programs, Chamberland founded the "League of the New Worlds," a corporate venture aimed at pioneering undersea communities. This entity marked a significant change in tempo in his audacious push toward settlement, blending corporate strategy with exploratory zeal.

Chamberland's entry into NASA's orbit in the mid-1980s as a bioengineer at the John F. Kennedy Space Center proved pivotal. Tasked with developing Advanced Space Life Support Systems—including Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) for potential Moon and Mars missions—he recognized the ocean's untapped potential as a "space-ocean analog." The sea's isolation, pressure, and resource constraints mirrored extraterrestrial challenges, making it an ideal testbed for human endurance.

 
In Undersea Colonies, Chamberland reflects on this synergy: "The history of the aquanaut traces from the first tentative 24-hour experiment in 1962 until today," underscoring how early dives like those of Jacques Cousteau's Conshelf or the U.S. Navy's Sealab laid technological foundations that NASA could adapt.

 
The turning point came in 1994 with the NASA OCEAN (Ocean CELSS Experimental Analog-NASA) Project, where Chamberland served as Principal Investigator and certified aquanaut. Near Key Largo, Florida, he planted and harvested the first major agricultural crop ever grown in a crewed seafloor habitat—a milestone integrating CELSS tech into an extreme environment, calling on earlier work by Pioneer Aquanaut Richard Presley. This success propelled him to design and construct the NASA Scott Carpenter Space Analog Station (SCSAS), a two-man underwater habitat named after astronaut-aquanaut Scott Carpenter. Completed within two years, SCSAS became a submerged laboratory for testing life support innovations.

 
SCSAS hosted two landmark NASA missions under Chamberland's command. The inaugural 1997 shakedown ran concurrently with Space Shuttle Atlantis's STS-86 mission, featuring plant growth experiments and educational outreach linking seafloor crews to schools and NASA's Johnson Space Center. As part of the NASA-Park Seed Company "SEEDS in Space" program, tomato seeds exposed to deep space were compared to "Sea Base" controls at SCSAS and Earth baselines, with 300,000 packets distributed via NASA's "Mission to America's Remarkable Students" (MARS) initiative—another Chamberland-led effort.

 
The 1998 "NASA Challenge Mission" pushed boundaries further, exceeding 36 days on the seafloor and overlapping with STS-95, John Glenn's historic return to space. Visitors included filmmaker James Cameron, who conferenced with Inuit students in Nunavut via satellite, and Tom Whittaker, the first disabled person to summit Everest. These missions, with Chief Engineer Joseph M. Bishop, validated SCSAS as a proving ground, amassing data on long-term habitation that Chamberland would weave into his colonization blueprint. By decade's end, Chamberland had commanded seven NASA underwater missions, earning Fellowship in the New York Explorers Club and solidifying his expertise.

Emboldened by SCSAS triumphs, Chamberland launched his third and most resolute campaign in 1998–1999: the Trident Project, aimed at deploying the inaugural permanent undersea colony in the Gulf of Mexico near Florida Bay. This initiative transcended analog testing; it was a declaration of sovereignty over the deep. Trident envisioned self-sustaining habitats harnessing ocean resources—algae farms for oxygen, aquaculture for food, and modular structures scalable to cities. Challenges abounded: funding shortfalls, regulatory hurdles from agencies like NOAA, and the sheer audacity of relocating humans indefinitely. Yet, Chamberland persisted, viewing these as evolutionary imperatives.

 
By late 2006, Trident evolved into the Atlantica Expeditions, a rebranded umbrella for phased missions toward full colonization. The name evoked Atlantis's mythic allure while signaling a new era of "Aquaticans."

 
As detailed in Undersea Colonies, the project rejected transient outposts: "These efforts do not represent an underwater hotel, an outpost or a way-station, or a laboratory. They will establish a human community: The first humans who will relocate there and stay with no intention of ever calling dry land our home again."

Published in 2007 by Quantum Editions, the bestselling book Undersea Colonies crystallized Chamberland's vision into a manifesto, blending technical treatise, historical chronicle, and philosophical treatise. Spanning the aquanaut's arc from 1960s experiments to contemporary potentials, the book argues for undersea expansion as a moral and practical necessity. "The sea and oceans of our planet have since time immemorial been a familiar but mysterious and alien territory for much of human history. This is about to change," Chamberland writes, likening it to Gerard K. O'Neill's The High Frontier for space.

 
Excerpts outline modular habitats like the "Leviathan," a cylindrical vessel for initial crews, and the sprawling "Challenger Station"—envisioned as the largest manned undersea habitat ever, rivaling Aquarius Reef Base but scaled for permanence.

 
The goal of these expeditions was to set iterative progress in Aquatica, from

……The goal of these ventures was to make iterative progress in the emlement biomedical monitoring, reef stewardship, and virtual outreach. Funding goals stood at $75,000 for this prelude, emphasizing sustainability over spectacle. Atlantica II, targeted for 2012–2013, promised bolder stakes: 12 colonists in Challenger Station, forging the first true undersea nation. Seven pioneers had committed by 2009, drawn to Chamberland's ethos of "stewardship, science, and sustainability."

 
The project positioned itself as a guardian of the ocean biome, countering threats like overfishing and acidification through on-site human presence.

 
Media spotlight amplified the call: National Geographic's Naked Science: City Under the Sea and Vice's Motherboard profile "The Aquatic Life of Dennis Chamberland" portrayed him as a modern Cousteau, advocating "space-ocean analogs" for Mars-bound tech.

 
Yet, realities tempered dreams. By 2010, logistical delays—sourcing materials for pressure-resistant habitats, securing dive certifications, and rallying investors—pushed timelines. The $1.5 million needed for Challenger loomed large, and broader economic shifts post-2008 recession strained private ventures.

 
Chamberland’s intellectual and inspirational legacy endures. Chamberland's post-NASA career—from chairing animal care committees to authoring the pair of books titled, Departing Earth Forever (2022)—reinforces his "First Principle of Human Exploration": systems must adapt to humans, not vice versa.

In Undersea Colonies, Chamberland closes with prophetic urgency: "We are about to depart the surface of our planet... forever. This is our story."

The Atlantica Project unrelentingly whispers the same story today—a testament to one man's quest to make the deep not just visited, but home. Chamberland's Aquaticans await their hour approaching rapidly, ready to claim the blue empire below.

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