In the 1950s a number of advances came together that began to make human visitation of the sea floor possible. Science gave us high-strength metals capable of withstanding the intense pressures that exist at great depths, while other advances helped make life-support systems that could keep people alive underwater for the many hours required to make a round trip to great depths. The engineering that went into designing better submarines in the post-World War II era also helped make deep-diving submersibles that could be steered, while advances in electrical engineering went into designing the lighting systems that allowed occupants to see during their dives. Finally, global politics spurred the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), giving further impetus to explore the sea while the emerging possibilities of submarine warfare, seafloor ballistic missiles, and other military uses of the ocean gave navies a vested interest in learning more about the ocean and its floor. All of these trends intersected in the 1950s, leading to the design of the Trieste, the first submersible designed to travel to and return from the deepest parts of the ocean.
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