In 1962, Belgian diver Robert Sténuit became the first human aquanaut, spending 24 hours in a tiny one-man underwater habitat off the coast of the French Riviera. This pioneering saturation dive demonstrated that humans could live and work underwater for extended periods, paving the way for future underwater habitats and saturation diving programs.

Sténuit's solo underwater marathon, a feat of endurance and courage, captured the public imagination as a vision of the future of human habitation. His experience, and the subsequent aquanaut programs, inspired poets and writers to explore the psychological and philosophical dimensions of living in the deep, from the introspective poetry of the space age to the ecopoetry of the environmental movement.