Tektite: A low cost underwater micronation for /Sci/?

[Anonymous No.3117034]

This is the Tektite habitat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektite_habitat

Originally used in the 1970s for psychological studies conducted by NASA, it is now sitting in storage. It was sold to a Californian museum for $1 a while back because the previous owners were looking to get rid of it, but said museum eventually decided the cost of refurbishing it wasn't worth it.

It could likely be had for $1 plus the cost of transporting it. Everything still works, the interior just needs fixing up. I see a lot of talk on here about setting up a /Sci/ country. This seems like the most plausible way. If we could raise the money to transport this someplace on the coast where board residents would donate their time to refurbish the interior, we could deploy it on free undersea land and supply it with air via electric air compressors on land, and grid power.

Most of the cost of operation used to be buying gasoline to run the gas powered air compressors on a surface buoy. By supplying air and power from land we could drastically reduce operating costs. Exterior traps would supply us with all the food we'd need. Renting time to marine biologists and high paying tourists would keep the electric bill paid.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.3117041]

fuck yes, I want. We could all live together there doing science.

[Anonymous No.3117051]

Costs would include transport by rail/truck, and hiring an A-frame ship to carrying it out to the site and sink it. That could cost tens of thousands, total.

More doable than buying an island like people suggested before but still beyond our means unless we got our shit together with kickstarter or something. Although I don't know who would donate to make this happen.

[Anonymous No.3117058]

So according to you, the most plausible way to set up a micronation is to add the complexity and hassle of living underwater in a tiny submerged structure and not get rid of the issue of having to secede sovereignity from another state. What could possibly go wrong?

[Anonymous No.3117060]

Here's an exterior photo.

Seems like a shame that all these 1970s era undersea labs are now rotting in storage, or in museums. They should be in the water where they belong. University marine studies programs could get a ton of use out of them.

[Anonymous No.3117069]

>>3117058

>>So according to you, the most plausible way to set up a micronation is to add the complexity and hassle of living underwater

Which amounts to setting up air compressors on land and running an air hose/power cable from the habitat to shore.

>>in a tiny submerged structure and not get rid of the issue of having to secede sovereignity from another state. What could possibly go wrong?

Yes, because #1. the land is free, #2. the food is free, #3. it's novel enough that others will pay to use it which would cover the operational costs.

[Anonymous No.3117076]

Besides which, it already exists. There are no design/construction costs. And the people who own it now will *give it away* for the cost of transportation. It has all the facilities necessary for comfortable living, just needs a little TLC.

That's hard to beat.

[Anonymous No.3117089]

If I ever do have the money I will build a house on the shore that's half submerged and half up on land. The thought of a big glass room maybe a foot or two under the surface would make for an awesome kitchen and dining hall.

I want something like this in the attached image, though, not for a bedroom.

[Anonymous No.3117090]

I only see two beds. And it looks like it could comfortably sleep six, maximum, with some hammocks/cots. That's hardly a 'nation', and most of /Sci/ couldn't live there.

[Anonymous No.3117100]

We need a few of them together, to house all of /sci/

[Anonymous No.3117104]

>>3117089

>>If I ever do have the money I will build a house on the shore that's half submerged and half up on land. The thought of a big glass room maybe a foot or two under the surface would make for an awesome kitchen and dining hall.

US submarines sells a submerged home, the H20ME, although I'm sure it's beyond expensive.

[Anonymous No.3117116]

>>3117069
>the land is free
You do realise that territorial sovereignity extends past the shoreline, right?

>>3117090
This too. A couple of rooms doesn't make a serious "nation". This is the underwater equivalent of the guy who declared a micronation in is apartment.

[Anonymous No.3117120]

>>3117100

>>We need a few of them together, to house all of /sci/

Once the first one is operational, we could raise additional money renting out one room as a novelty hotel and use said money to transport/refurbish other 1970s era habitats that are currently in storage.

[Anonymous No.3117123]

>>3117104
I wonder if there's an advantage in terms of heating/cooling.

[Anonymous No.3117127]

>>3117116

>>You do realise that territorial sovereignity extends past the shoreline, right?

Yes, but past 12 miles, it is legal to build on the seafloor and nobody technically owns it.

[Anonymous No.3117135]

>>3117123

Depends on the hull materials and where the machinery is. Some habitats were energy intensive to heat as the hull was one giant heatsink. Others required constant air conditioning because the hull material was a poor thermal conductor and the machinery produced significant waste heat.

At the time, compact aircon and dehumidifiers hadn't been commoditized yet. These days the systems necessary to keep the inside dry and warm (but not too warm) are cheap and available at any Costco.

[Anonymous No.3117155]

I like this idea, if only because it's a shame for such a huge part of our history of exploration to be sitting in a dusty warehouse somewhere.

All the old habitats should be dusted off, fixed up and deployed within a few dozen feet of each other as a sort of livable museum. You could sell filming rights, use one or more of them as hotels (the Jules Undersea Lodge sustains itself this way and is always booked several months out, so there is clearly demand.) and rent out some of them to universities for use by marine biology students.

It'd require a good deal of funding to get all of them shipped out to the coast and deployed, but far, far less than it would take to buy an island and it's a compelling enough cause that you could likely find wealthy sponsors for it.

[Anonymous No.3117180]

>>3117127
>but past 12 miles
Try 200 and/or to the edge of the continental shelf.

If what you were saying is true you'd have oil companies drilling 12.1 miles offshore, paying no tax and flipping the bird to authorities closer to shore.

[Anonymous No.3117264]

>>3117041

Indeed. I could "study" psilocybe mushrooms and how they grow in such artificial environments. I could also "study" the mushrooms' effects on humans in such cramped environs, especially myself since one should never subject a test subject to something you yourself aren't willing to endure if you can help it.

We could also help fund the project via allowing people to come down and conduct their own "studies", and selling them the excess mushrooms we grow and have no use for.

[Anonymous No.3117372]

>>3117089
Only issue with that is. Anywhere that with an underwater view worth building something like that is probably protected.