Six divers will seek to set a new world record for living under water when they submerge off the island of Ponza from September 8 to 22. The previous record for living under water was set in September 2005 by Italians Stefano Barbaresi and Stefania Mensa, who spent ten days off Ponza at a depth of eight meters.
The new 14-day experiment will take place some 15 meters under water but this time the divers will have three large diving bells to live in and sleep.
Mensa, 31, is back to set the new record and has been preparing at the diving center she runs in Porto Ercole on the Tuscan coast.
The other 'aquanauts' are Debora Vassani, 26, a letter carrier in Rome; Isabella Moreschi, 33, a scuba instructor from Brescia; Claudio Croce, 34, a computer consultation from Rome; Luca Giordani, a swimming instructor in Rome; and 40-year-old Alessandro Brandetti, a car salesman in Rome and father of two.
Moreschi said she was taking part in the experiment because "if it were up to me I would never get out of the water," while Croce said he wanted to "test my physical and mental limits".
Giordani is going to help cure a broken heart.
"Instead of trekking off to Tibet I'm going under water," he said.
Two years ago, Barbaresi and Mensa had only one bell which they used to eat, carry out medical tests and go to the toilet. They then slept under upside down bed frames to keep from floating to the surface.
This year there will also be a fourth bell which will be used for cooking, eating, maintaining equipment and managing resources.
Electricity will be generated by solar panels on the surface and drinking water will be produced by a desalinator on the sea floor, while foodstuffs will be delivered on a regulated basis.
The bells have been designed to be partially self-sufficient with no connection with the surface.
The six aquanauts, members of the Explorer Team Pellicano, will be monitored on a 24-hour basis by a qualified medical staff and experts from Rome University and the city's leading hospitals.
This test as well as the one two years ago was the brainchild of the team's manager Patrizio Bozzi who said that "we are initiating a serious colonization of the sixth continent".
"Two years ago we demonstrated how it was possible to live under water without any significant physical or psychological consequences. This year we will show how it is possible to adapt everyday living habits and physiological needs to this environment," Bozzi said.
