I don't know if it's that weird. The design of the Deepsea Challenger (in 2012) looks similar to me: a tiny habitable sphere surmounted by a much larger vehicle

I don't know if it's that weird. The design of the Deepsea Challenger (in 2012) looks similar to me: a tiny habitable sphere surmounted by a much larger vehicle on top. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger