Colonizing the sea floor.

[Anonymous No.1747567]

The first civilian sea floor colony will begin construction in 2011 with the sinking and mating of two modular living pods. The man responsible is an ex-NASA engineer with a shitload of corporate sponsors who benefit from his Scuba and hydroponics related patents. So far he's built those two modules, he's got a submarine that doubles as a habitat for on-site laborers, and two support vessels. A third 'hub' is in the works, to which many standardized living modules can be attached.

His intention seems to be to continue building and adding modules till the funding dries up, then exploit local resources to cover operating costs. This includes farming approved species of fish which can't survive at surface pressures, renting out a module to NASA for deep sea analogue training, Tourism, aquaculture, etc.

Anyone can apply for residence provided they are married and have kids. It's "families only".

[Anonymous No.1747572]

>farming approved species of fish which can't survive at surface pressures
thats pretty smart
>Anyone can apply for residence provided they are married and have kids. It's "families only".
whack

curios to see how this turns out

[Anonymous No.1747574]

Alright, who wants to get married for SCIENCE!

[Anonymous No.1747577]

how tall are the doors and hallways etc? i bet it sucks for people who aren't short.

[Anonymous No.1747578]

>>1747572

He did build a module appropriate for a single occupant or a couple, but only as a test of his innovations in life support, pic related.

The colony modules will be similar in design but much more spacious so as to accommodate six occupants with sufficient 'elbow room' and privacy. They look to be roughly the interior volume of a studio apartment, but with separate compartments for shower/toilet and bedrooms.

[Anonymous No.1747580]

>>1747572

He did build a module appropriate for a single occupant or a couple, but only as a test of his innovations in life support, pic related.

The colony modules will be similar in design but much more spacious so as to accommodate six occupants with sufficient 'elbow room' and privacy. They look to be roughly the interior volume of a studio apartment, but with separate compartments for shower/toilet and bedrooms.

[Anonymous No.1747583]

>>1747567
Is he a homophobe or something?

[Anonymous No.1747584]

>>1747577

>>how tall are the doors and hallways etc? i bet it sucks for people who aren't short.

The modules under construction all assume an average 6 foot height. Here's an illustration of one of the larger "meeting areas", to be used as a dining room or commons. It is the second largest module type to be used, the largest will be the hubs that join the family modules together.

[Anonymous No.1747587]

People need sunlight

[Anonymous No.1747590]

>>1747587
>People need sunlight
says the anon posting from his bedroom with the blinds closed

[Anonymous No.1747591]

normally when someone asks "why would anyone want to do that?" I'm the type of person that responds "why not?"

but in this case, i really have to ask. why the hell build at the bottom of the ocean when the land isn't full yet? you could even build underground and have all the pros of underwater living but without the whole surprise 1000psi of water in your sleep if something fails. it just doesn't seem... meh.

unless they are going to not let the people leave and study psychological effects for research for mars colonies or something.

[Anonymous No.1747594]

>>1747567 Alright, who wants to get married for SCIENCE!

Fuck that. I'm going to build my own undersea colony that only lets single people in, then we'll totally kick that married colony's ass.

Pic related. Its what my place will be like.

[Anonymous No.1747600]

>>1747567 Anyone can apply for residence provided they are married and have kids.

I've got a civil-union with my same sex partner, can I still come?
>>Why yes; I am an engineer.

[Anonymous No.1747601]

>>1747591

>>but in this case, i really have to ask. why the hell build at the bottom of the ocean when the land isn't full yet?

Because it's rich in resources we haven't bothered to rape yet because they're under hundreds or thousands of feet of water. Because habitat divers remain acclimated to that pressure and can dive all day without decompressing as a result, compared to surface diving which lasts about an hour. Because there are individuals willing to pay to visit and corporations willing to pay to train astronauts and because you're surrounded not only by exotic biomass you can use for fuel and medicines but also an abundance of energy from water currents and deep sea thermal vents.

It's a bit like the ALTAIR computer. Nobody knew what it was good for, because it was unexplored territory.

[Anonymous No.1747603]

Waitaminute, it says right in the pic "individuals"

[Anonymous No.1747608]

An Australian dude named Lloyd Godson recently proved you can put together a simple, cheap and self-sustaining undersea home. He built his from a cargo container, kept the batteries charged with an exercycle, and used a large algae farm to keep the air fresh.

[Anonymous No.1747610]

>>1747603

>>Waitaminute, it says right in the pic "individuals"

There's a caveat. You've got to be an engineer with relevant skills, that sort of thing.

BTW, here's a pic from the oldest underwater hotel. the module shown here is about 2/3rds the size of a colony family module. Add enough room for six bunk beds and that's about what you're lookin' at.

[Anonymous No.1747612]

Here's Lloyd chilling in his little habitat.

[Anonymous No.1747622]

In b4 Bioshock references!

[Anonymous No.1747632]

how deep are these going to be? the psychological implications could be interesting for these. a commercial diver friend of mine lived at ~900 feet down for a month breathing a heliox mix. he said shit sucked by the end. currently the aquarius scientific habitat rotates out researchers like once a month, and it's only in like ~150' of water.

also WTF "fish that don't live at surface pressures"? are they farming rattails or something? those fuckers are ugly and don't have much meat on em. not entirely sure what fish they mean here, and i'm a marine scientist.....

[Anonymous No.1747637]

>>1747632

>>how deep are these going to be? the psychological implications could be interesting for these. a commercial diver friend of mine lived at ~900 feet down for a month breathing a heliox mix. he said shit sucked by the end. currently the aquarius scientific habitat rotates out researchers like once a month, and it's only in like ~150' of water.

Not sure, though the expectation is they'll be deep enough to leverage the handful of benefits that actually come with being that deep.

>>also WTF "fish that don't live at surface pressures"? are they farming rattails or something? those fuckers are ugly and don't have much meat on em. not entirely sure what fish they mean here, and i'm a marine scientist.....

In recent years numerous unusual specimens have been dredged up, but examination was made more difficult by the tissue damage that resulted from decompression. The idea is that on-site scientists living in such colonies could explore the surrounding waters and, when such organisms are discovered, they could cultivate small populations in pens near the habitat to experiment on. Doing so at the pressure to which they're adapted would tell us a lot more about them than dissecting decompression-ravaged remains.

[Anonymous No.1747641]

>>1747632

>>a commercial diver friend of mine lived at ~900 feet down for a month breathing a heliox mix.

Link to project details pls.

>>he said shit sucked by the end.

I'll bet anything he was in a habitat that did not have a separated moon pool. A lot of the older habitats were shut down for the same reason, we had to learn hard lessons in habitat design like "separate the moon pool from where you'll actually be living or the humidity will become intolerable".

[Anonymous No.1747649]

>>1747641
project pre-dates the internet, apologies. it was a commercial job he did in the 80s, so i don't really know details. his max dive depth was 980' during this.

>numerous unusual specimens have been dredged up, but examination was made more difficult by the tissue damage that resulted from decompression

this was common with hydrothermal vent critters in the beginning (we now bring them up in bioboxes to reduce temp/pressure shock), but i wasn't aware that new weird shit was getting dredged up. where did this happen? links?

[Anonymous No.1747653]

>>1747649

>>this was common with hydrothermal vent critters in the beginning (we now bring them up in bioboxes to reduce temp/pressure shock), but i wasn't aware that new weird shit was getting dredged up. where did this happen? links?

Just google "new deep sea species discovered".

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS378US378&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=new+sea
+species+discovered#hl=en&expIds=17259,24542,25729,25900,26512&sugexp=ldymls
&tok=dwdizgFkNH87Bk_q_2bh1w&xhr=t&q=new+deep+sea+species+discovered&cp=5&pf=p&am
p;sclient=psy&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS378US378&source=hp&aq=f&aqi=g2g-c1g-o1&am
p;aql=&oq=new+d+sea+species+discovered&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=3538f0668f833607

Happens all the fuckin' time. This is exactly why we should be building habitats in relatively unexplored regions of the sea floor, so that scientists can do saturation diving expeditions and experiment on new species without having to surface.

[Anonymous No.1747657]

Keen! Where do I sign?

[Anonymous No.1747662]

>>1747653
i realize it happens all the time....i'm not a biologist so i don't stay on top of these things, sheesh. for crap's sake a friend of mine has a species of lamprey named after him...

you do realize that a lot of the unexplored regions of the seafloor are 1500+ meters deep, right? i personally work in 2660m waters off WA/OR.....we use a submersible or ROV to get our shit done. coastal zones or other areas that still have light are much better mapped/explored. it's the dark midwaters and abyssal zones that we don't know shit about. and honestly, if they're sinking these things below the zone where light penetrates.....gonna be hard to get people to volunteer. people will want a view, if nothing else.

[Anonymous No.1747665]

>>1747657

>>Keen! Where do I sign?

Here:

http://underseacolony.com/core/joinUS.html

They are very serious about commitment though. They don't want people who will drop in for a few months to check the place out and then leave, they want the kinds of people eager to live out their whole lives underwater.

Pic related, dude scrubbing marine growth off the exterior of a habitat, probably what your job will be if you're not a scuba technician or something.

[Anonymous No.1747669]

>>1747662

>>you do realize that a lot of the unexplored regions of the seafloor are 1500+ meters deep, right? i personally work in 2660m waters off WA/OR.....we use a submersible or ROV to get our shit done. coastal zones or other areas that still have light are much better mapped/explored. it's the dark midwaters and abyssal zones that we don't know shit about. and honestly, if they're sinking these things below the zone where light penetrates.....gonna be hard to get people to volunteer. people will want a view, if nothing else.

Conshelf was build on the edge of a continental shelf (hence the name) and thus had the best of both worlds; natural daylight, and immediate access to much deeper regions with a gradual slope so that compression occurred at the appropriate rate as you progressed.

Habitats would ideally be built at various depths to study the species native to those pressures, and you could conceivably build one next to a trench as a home base for the mini-sub used to explore it.

[Anonymous No.1747679]

I have a feeling this'll turn out bad...

[Anonymous No.1747681]

>>1747669
>you could conceivably build one next to a trench

conceivably. oh god the titanium you'd need for that. you don't even want to know how expensive it was for NSF to buy the titanium for the new Alvin sphere (rated to 6500m).....they had to scale back the design for the new sub it was so much. and that's only for a 6.5' diameter sphere that's ~3" thick. i don't want to even think about how much you'd need for a whole habitat.

[Anonymous No.1747691]

>>1747681

OP here, you seem to have extensive knowledge of deep sea operations and as that is an interest of mine I'd like to get into contact with you. Do you have an AIM?

Alternatively you can drop me a line at [e-mail] (dummy account) and I can add you from there.

[Anonymous No.1747756]

>>1747691
that's because i'm a marine geoscientist that uses ROVs and submersibles to do my research. just got off a 2 month scientific drilling cruise. i don't really use AIM anymore...no time. about a year out from my PhD. anything in particular you're interested in?

[Anonymous No.1747759]

>>1747756

>>that's because i'm a marine geoscientist that uses ROVs and submersibles to do my research. just got off a 2 month scientific drilling cruise. i don't really use AIM anymore...no time. about a year out from my PhD. anything in particular you're interested in?

Yes, but this thread won't last forever and I'm going to want to pick your brain over an extended period. Send me an email so we can begin to correspond. I have some ideas you might find interesting, or which are perhaps unworkable for reasons I don't understand, worst case scenario you get a laugh out of them.

[Anonymous No.1748076]

>>1747679
So whats the point of a drill that big?
I understand the Rosies needs to maintain the city of Rapture, but why does a undersea city need people with giant drills?

[chemfag No.1748167]

I wonder if the cabled approach by these researchers http://www.interactiveoceans.washington.edu/rsn/
will be more promising for both research and commercial purposes....

[Anonymous No.1748209]

It's more like a useless outpost with a few dozen people at most. The food production will be unimpressive compared to what we can achieve with modern farming methods and the research benefit is questionable as most of it can be simulated in other ways. Tourism will be about as attractive as space tourism is now and will hardly be able to cover the cost seeing the amount of space they'd have. Honestly, I don't see the point, but if he managed to convince investors to throw away their money, who am I to question it.

[Anonymous No.1749001]

>>1748167
NEPTUNE Canada is already doing this, with AMAZING results. one of my instruments is hooked up to it, with hopefully 3 more in the next several years. i can access my data on the internet in real-time as opposed to having to dive down in a sub, connect up, download, then analyze data from the last year.

side note: they put dead pigs dressed in clothes down at one NEPTUNE node with a time-lapse camera on it...HOLY shit you should've seen all the six-gill sharks that ate the shit out of the carcass in no time flat. it was a forensics experiment...way cool IMO.

[Anonymous No.1749063]

Well, I am a physicist and this seems pretty cool. It is not for me and my family though, because we need space and doubt they would only want a family down there for no more than a year. I would love to teach though.

[Anonymous No.1749107]

>>1749001
NEPTUNE is awesome. Way back when it was being put together, someone from the project gave a talk at an HPC conference I was at. Really drove home to me how cool science in the future is going to be. Oh wait. We're in the future now? Awesome.