So let's say /sci/ pitches in to build this.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473189]

It's about $10,000 in materials, by far the cheapest design. What body of water would we put it in, how deep, and what would we study there?

It should be somewhere that lots of us can get to it, so a look at where most of /sci/ is posting from would be handy. It should be somewhere that there's a lot of interesting shit to study that could produce worthwhile research papers.

My nomination:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-09-24/bay-area/17157272_1_shasta-lake-central-valley-project-water-s
-edge

There's a large swathe of tribal land about to be flooded by the construction of a new dam. It would be interesting to watch what happens to the landscape as it gradually transitions from being a terrestrial biome to a freshwater marine biome. And swimming above/among trees would be a really surreal experience while it lasted. Here's an example of what it would look like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ-7WD5VdWs

Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.3473211]

Where's the crapper?

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473224]

>>3473211

This is always the first thing that comes up. You shit outside and within seconds the fish eat it. Such is life beneath the sea.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.3473229]

Let's make a design for RC submarines that can be 3D printed :D

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.3473237]

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/3d-printing-uavs-from-design-to-flight.html

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473248]

>>3473229

Better yet, autonomous RC submarines with solar panels that surface for 8 hours when they need to recharge, which have motion sensor activated cameras, and carbonic acid sensors to monitor the effects of atmospheric CO2 on the body of water they're in. Also they can home in on a specific radio signal which is used for gathering them up after sampling is done.

Release a thousand into a large lake, come back in a year, gather them up and offload their data.

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.3473269]

>>3473248

>my face when

Also, Mad, you know those plans to make self-replicating Moon bases? Yeah those. How would you go about implementing that stuff underwater? Not necessarily ocean floor level, but something simple, like a set of solar panel buoys, some digging machines, underwater portable refineries and some simple manufacturing things. I was just thinking it would be a good technology demonstrator for future kinematic self-replicators in SPACE, and a lot of the technology would be easily translatable.

[Anonymous No.3473273]

>>3473248

[Anonymous No.3473277]

>>3473189
OP is a newfag who doesn't know about ANONA 1.0

[Anonymous No.3473283]

>>3473248
Has anybody done this? This seems very doable, especially if government funded.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473301]

>>3473269

Well, in ocean water you can cause minerals to accrete rapidly on any electrified surface. This is called biorock accretion. If you could finely control which parts of an object are electrified at any given time, you could build geometrically precise objects out of an oceanic mineral substance harder than concrete over a year or two.

It's a bit like low tech 3d printing using a substance that surrounds you in the ocean.

[Anonymous No.3473311]

>>3473301

How effective is this? Like, how much air can they hold? Are they safe?

[Colonel Coffee Mug !phJ7yIcs.Q No.3473322]

>>3473301

>year or two

Yeah...

But it's still interesting. I wonder how precise it is, that is, how big the resolution would be if you applied voltage to only a specific part of the structure...

[Anonymous No.3473320]

>>3473277
ANONA 1.0

The Autonomous Network Oriented Neural Application - a self conscious program created by a band of cyber punks known as anonymous whose main goal is to majestically traverse the internet in search for lactative glands.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473326]

>>3473283

>>Has anybody done this? This seems very doable, especially if government funded.

There's this Navy sensor, but it has no camera and can only sink/surface. It uses a bacterial culture to gradually generate its own lifting gas to rise to the surface and transmit its data, then purges the gas to sink again.

My hypothetical subs would be able to thoroughly catalogue all species living in a body of water as well as taking chemical readings from pretty much every point in that body of water over long periods simply by random roaming, like how a roomba aimlessly cleans a whole floor.

[Anonymous No.3473330]

>>3473322
u n' that pictur need to be burned togeather.

[Anonymous No.3473348]

>>3473322
what a fag
pic related, its you.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473356]

>>3473311

>>How effective is this? Like, how much air can they hold? Are they safe?

They're safe, concrete submarines have been around for years (pic related). They're ugly but they do the job. This is just building a structure from a kind of concrete that is comprise of free floating oceanic mineral particles.

It would hold air just fine and be plenty strong, even as a 1atm structure down to at least 500-600 feet. My concern would be anchoring it securely to the ocean floor.

[Anonymous No.3473393]

>>3473356

So basically,
>assemble strong steel frame.
>attach/weigh to the floor of a body of water.
>apply current from surface.
>wait until structure forms.
>pump water out/air in.

and... that's it?

It seems too good to be true. Why haven't you tried this yourself?

[Anonymous No.3473404]

Hey /sci/,

My name is Igor, and I hate every single one of you. All of you are fat, retarded, no-lifes who spend every second of their day above sea level. You are everything bad in the world. Honestly, have any of you ever gotten below 800 meters? I mean, I guess it's fun breathing naturally oxygenated air, but you all take to a whole new level. This is even worse than jerking off to pictures on facebook.

Don't be a stranger. Just hit me with your best torpedo. My habitat is pretty much perfect. I was captain of the free driving team, and started my own aquaculture club. What do you play, other than "boating down the river"? I also get straight A's, and have a banging hot research partner (He just calculated the microbial density of a sample of seawater; Shit was SO populated). You are all candy-asss who should just drown yourselves. Thanks for listening.

Pic Related: It's me and my sublimnos habitat

[Anonymous No.3473426]

Unfortunately you'll all be dead before any of this fun stuff happens.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473430]

>>3473393

>>It seems too good to be true. Why haven't you tried this yourself?

I don't live near the ocean, I'd need a mess of permits to do it close to shore, solar panels are expensive, etc. etc.

If you want to see examples of stuff other people have built in the sea via biorock accretion, google image search "biorock art". It's been used mainly for artistic projects, and for forcibly rehabilitating coral reefs, which is extremely useful as reefs are currently dying and most of the species in the photic zone rely on them for survival. It may be that in the coming years all major coral reefs will be on 'life support' via solar panels and skeletal aluminum extensions.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473443]

A biorock dome nearing completion. Should look a lot more complete by now as this was taken in 2006.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473451]

A reef being grown from small coral samples and a steel skeleton. We can use this to grow reefs anywhere.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473463]

Those same reefs viewed from above and in an early stage of growth.

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473493]

>>3473443
:o

Do you know what scale that is? Looks very interesting

I've decided that at some point in the next few months I'm going to try and confine myself to a 10*3M room and see how long I can survive and what rate I use resources, to see if I can work out how much space I need to sacrifice for it when I try building a habitat. I've forgotten to check before: Will I need a freshwater tank, or is there some way of removing salt from water efficiently in small-ish quantities? I'm happy to use chlorine tablets if there's some way of dealing with the salinity.

[SomeStupidFag !!jgMdkqLZWtJ No.3473500]

>>3473443
>>3473451

fuck yeah, they sunk a bunch of New York metro cars into the ocean to provide a place for fishes and corals a while back. Last I heard it was quite lively down there.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473518]

>>3473493

>>Do you know what scale that is?

Look closely, you can see a little scuba diver right above it. It's very big.

>Will I need a freshwater tank

Yes, there are compact desalination devices but they are expensive.

>>3473500

Most projects like that allow corals to grow naturally on metal, which they are chemically inclined to do. But electrifying that metal even with very low voltage accelerates the coral growth by about 5 times.

[Anonymous No.3473529]

>>3473500
Yeah, I really want to see the USS Oriskany, not only for its awesome shipwreck self but also as an artificial reef.

Things get overgrown pretty quickly down there. I saw a concrete statue of Jesus they sunk in Cozumel, Mexico and it was crazy.

[SomeStupidFag !!jgMdkqLZWtJ No.3473536]

>>3473493

10x3 is bigger than my room, actually, it's bigger than the place my family lived when I was little. Mad Scientist probably has more detail answers for you. I think your problems will be air and water.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473543]

>>3473529

>Things get overgrown pretty quickly down there. I saw a concrete statue of Jesus they sunk in Cozumel, Mexico and it was crazy.

That's why I laugh when people worry about mankind's presence in the sea harming it. Literally every structure we put down there enhances reefs and increases reef organism populations. All subs are battery electric, and all habitats are sunk into place with zero disturbance of the local flora and fauna.

*Not* living in the sea is what harms it. It allows us to dump there because there are no NIMBYs to complain. Imagine the environmental benefits of large subsea communities where trawling is forbidden in a hundred mile radius around each colony.

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473551]

>>3473518
I wasn't sure if he was just distant. That thing's huge.

I'll take water into account when planning from now on. I think I can probably get about 1500L of storage space for it

At the same time, I really want to keep it outside in a balloon like that algae based air filter. Too much choice

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473563]

>>3473536

>I think your problems will be air and water.

Depends how far he is from shore. Air is a non-issue, you float an air compressor on the surface and periodically feed it gasoline. Or if you're near shore you run a waterproof powerline to shore and use grid power to run an electric compressor. The buoy holding the compressor needs to be designed to be very stable and difficult to tip obviously.

Water is easy if he's close to shore. Run a hose out there and connect it to a filtered tap inside the habitat. Install a compact water heater for showers (which you'll need every time you enter the habitat to clean off salt water, which prevents corrosion of the interior.)

If he's far out to sea, it becomes a lot more complicated. For someone in his position I'd recommend he put the habitat in a cove somewhere that is very close to shore, but deep enough to be worthwhile (30 feet or so, for a hatch depth of 21 feet)

[Anonymous No.3473566]

>>3473543
The problem is not properly securing things to the sea floor and improperly preparing things to be "reefed" before they're sunk.

As a scuba diver and fin swimmer that considers himself an "aquatic ape" (though the theory bearing the name is bullshit), I would love to live in the sea. Not sure what the hell a lawyer would do on the ocean floor, but I'd still love it.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473573]

>>3473566

>(though the theory bearing the name is bullshit)

I was really disappointed when I learned that. I still wonder what accounts for all the morphological features we share with cetaceans and only cetaceans.

[Anonymous No.3473579]

You could probably get legitimate backing to study that flooding, has that sort of ting been done before?

[SomeStupidFag !!jgMdkqLZWtJ No.3473581]

>>3473518

really? 5 times, that's awesome, do you happen to know the mechanism of it? Was it because it accelerate the rate of calcification of some sort?

I don't really know if they treated any of the stuff they sank, but I got some first hand experience on the speed of marine colonization. We build a structure mostly rock and cement, sunk it, and within couple of days we have a bed of little volcano shape mollusks and various little flower thingy, in couple of weeks there were quite a bit of activities there. If you decide to sink one of them for sometime weeks/months, you definitely need to have a way of keeping all that stuff off your structure, some of their glues are very tough ie, left mark/dent when chipped off the rock.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473585]

Also:

>>3473566
>Not sure what the hell a lawyer would do on the ocean floor

You'd be hired by fat, rich NIMBYs living in luxury underwater communities to sue the shit out of anyone who dumps waste within 100 miles of the colony or tries to trawl in those waters. Leveraging NIMBY behavior for the good of mankind, for once. You know they'll want that perfect coral view with plentiful tropical fish and dolphins outside, in effect making them into environmental conservationists, if for the wrong reasons.

[Anonymous No.3473587]

>>3473536
It's going to be in a 10M long by 3M wide silo, so most of that space is actually going to be unusable as anything but storage. I plan on having a floor 50CM from the bottom under which I'll have a battery and probably some tools/spare parts if necessary. One end will have the moon pool in it, the other will have either a bathroom or a bedroom, can't decide which at the moment. I think the way I have cupboards planned I'll only have about 1.3*6M of space I can walk on.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473597]

>>3473581

>Was it because it accelerate the rate of calcification of some sort?

Yes.

>>3473579

>You could probably get legitimate backing to study that flooding, has that sort of ting been done before?

Never. I could always contact the Undersea Voyager Project, they'll take anyone with a legitimate experiment down in a submersible for free. But that wouldn't do much good, what I really need is a small outpost from which to perform longterm observation.

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473595]

>>3473587
Forgot to say: It's going to be oriented horizontally. Should be clear, but it might not be.

[pascal !PascaL9QAg No.3473609]

how do algae bottles work?

I understand that algae uses co2 and produces o2

but do you need to replace them every X or do you remove algae? or does it life cycle itself?

[Anonymous No.3473613]

>>3473573
I'm not sure about the hair, but the subcutaneous fat can be simply explained: brains.

Cetaceans have huge brains and so do we (ours are bigger by body mass) so the need for fat reserves makes this bit of convergent evolution a "no brainer" if you will. ;)

>>3473585
I'm a patent attorney (or at least will be when I'm done with law school), so there's not much use for me unless there's a whole underwater economy churning out intellectual property.

On that front though, maybe my moronic business idea to study marine fungi (I studied fungi heavily in college), sequence their genomes, run proteonomics, and patent the shit out of the results might be the beginnings of an actual underwater economy. Keeping the corporate HQ close to the research bases (Cayman Islands, Panama, Singapore, etc.) would be nice. I could scuba dive to my heart's content, do real science, AND be a filthy rich attorney/biotech entrepreneur!

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473618]

>>3473609

I do need some way to continually supply food. I could add a few small fish to each bottle and create a stable cycle where the algae oxygenates the water for the fish, the fish eat the algae, the fish poop, and the algae eats the poop. It would slightly decrease O2 output, but make the system sustainable without a constant input of plant food.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473627]

>>3473613

>I'm a patent attorney (or at least will be when I'm done with law school), so there's not much use for me unless there's a whole underwater economy churning out intellectual property.

You could offer your services to US Submarines. They're building the closest thing to a large scale underwater community right now, the Poseidon Undersea Resort. They do need legal assistance at the moment as they're having difficulty over subsea land rights.

I'd suggest you offer your services to the Atlantica Expeditions, but we operate on a shoestring budget, all donations and investment dollars go into completing the demonstration habitat for the 2012 mission.

[Anonymous No.3473637]

>>3473320
I lol'd hard.

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473644]

>>3473597
Looking at prices, a good approach to building a station for minimal cost might actually be to buy an old 8-10ft shipping container, weld the door shut, and then cut a hole in the bottom. They seem to be fairly sturdy and cheap (compared to this, at least)

[Anonymous No.3473645]

>>3473627
Yeeah, my specialties are biotech and international corporate law where it applies to patent law. I know, I turned my back on science to become a bloodsucking lawyer... sue me, I'll counter-sue and win.

Maybe I'll be just another rich fuck with a vacation home under the waves. Weird question though, what kind of divers do you need? I'm advanced open water and nitrox certified, could I be of any use?

[SomeStupidFag !!jgMdkqLZWtJ No.3473652]

>>3473587

oh, then it wouldn't be too much floor space then. Since it's a tube like, it'd feel quite cramp. Do you plan to put any window on it? I think with the concrete tube, you don't really need to much anchor, just have to be enough to stop rolling, I can't remember the exact number but at a certain depth, you won't be affected by surface disturbance (wave, wind) in effect, there could be a raging tropical storm on the surface, and in your home, you'd feel nothing, no sound, no movement. The scuba anon can probably tell you about the depth. oh, how deep do you want to go btw? >>3473563 he's right, depends on how close to shore you are and such, if you plan to live far/remote, keep some sort of backup plan.

>>3473585
>>3473543

this, so much this, people are fucking stupid, dump stuff into the sea and then complain about contaminated fishes, algae, shellfish, if we live in/close to the sea, your livelihood depends on what you catch and eat in the sea, just like groundwater, there would be so little pollution then.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473657]

>>3473644

>Looking at prices, a good approach to building a station for minimal cost might actually be to buy an old 8-10ft shipping container, weld the door shut, and then cut a hole in the bottom. They seem to be fairly sturdy and cheap (compared to this, at least)

You mean like this?

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473671]

>>3473652
Ideally, it'd have a curved perspex panel in the roof to let light in. Realistically, it's probably going to have a porthole on the side. Either way, there'll be ways of looking out.
The tube is actually metal, which makes anchoring it difficult. IIRC it worked out as needing about 40 tonnes of ballast before being filled, which could be the most difficult part.
It's going in so the moon pool is at about 18 or 19 feet. I know it could be 21, but this way if I mess up and put it on a shifting sand bank I can get out without risking the bends.
>>3473657
Looks like I do. What's that?

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473669]

>>3473645

>Maybe I'll be just another rich fuck with a vacation home under the waves.

If you've got 5.5 mil, you can have one of those right now. Pic related, the H2Ome by US Submarines, basically the same pod that's at either end of the poseidon resort but repurposed as a private home.

>Weird question though, what kind of divers do you need? I'm advanced open water and nitrox certified, could I be of any use?

The permanent colony will be at 250 feet. We have plenty of divers on the team already. You'd be more useful for your lawyerin' skills.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473691]

>>3473671

>Looks like I do. What's that?

Biosub 1. Lloyd Godson's first habitat. Pic related.

>Ideally, it'd have a curved perspex panel in the roof to let light in. Realistically, it's probably going to have a porthole on the side. Either way, there'll be ways of looking out.

Remember, if you have a heat gun, you can soften plexiglass to the point that it can be bent into a curved shape that matches the hull curvature. This is how the Sublimnos windows were made in the first pic.

>IIRC it worked out as needing about 40 tonnes of ballast before being filled, which could be the most difficult part.

Make a "ballast tray". A platform around the bottom portion of the habitat with a rim, so you can shovel sand into it. Presto, free ballast. That's how Baylab does it.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473696]

Here's the baylab habitat, the ballast tray doubles as a floating platform for moving it out to the sinking site.

[None !/oddSpacew No.3473709]

>>3473691
Ahah, should've recognised that one :s
>Remember, if you have a heat gun, you can soften plexiglass to the point that it can be bent into a curved shape that matches the hull curvature.
True. I'll try that on the side window and if all goes well the habitat can be floated back up and modified for fabulousness.
>sand as ballast
Glorious. I'm not sure how I'd make the tray, but if/when I do, that's a much better solution than the oil barrels and iron thing I was planning.

[Anonymous No.3473711]

>>3473669
Specifically what lawyerin' skills do you need? I'm still a law student and I doubt I'll be taking the bar in FL (where your project is going to be, right?), so I'm not of much help there.

I looked at the US Submarines website and HOLY SHIT. I want the Phoenix 1000.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3473762]

>>3473711

>I looked at the US Submarines website and HOLY SHIT. I want the Phoenix 1000.

I want their luxury ambient pressure home with the submarine dock. The H2Ome is appealing, but I don't like how it's directly connected to the surface via elevator. I want the only access to be via submersible.

[Anonymous No.3473896]

>>3473762
I'd rather have the submarine/yacht.

I could bring bitches and we could sink with me beneath the waves and they'd have to put out... because of the implication.
>Pic related, because of the implication.

[Anonymous No.3473960]

>>3473896

Nope, eventually you gotta come up because the air supply runs out. And then they press charges.

But if you have that underwater house you can pull a Josef Fritzl.

[Anonymous No.3473985]

>>3473960
It's not rape bro, but they have to bang us because of the implication.

>implying

God, I love that show.

[Anonymous No.3473990]

>>3473960
They'd both be fairly capable rape dungeons with some method of adding oxygen back into the air, chaps.

[Anonymous No.3473997]

>>3473990
What aren't you getting about this? It's not rape, it's just that they're out to sea, they're kinda scared, kinda drunk and it's a sure thing.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3474006]

>Try to share sense of awe and wonder I feel when imagining mankind's near future beneath the sea
>Conversation starts out with "Where do they poop"
>Usually turns to "Could I grow pot in there and hide it from the DEA"
>This time it has turned to discussion of undersea rape dungeons
>God damnit you guys

[Anonymous No.3474011]

I want to build an underwater base because I want to build an underwater base, even though it's completely pointless.

[Anonymous No.3474016]

>>3473997
sure, sure. I just mean hypothetically, if you were to want a rape dungeon, both would be capable

[Anonymous No.3474028]

>>3474006
It's a reference to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=MEE08941

Watch and laugh yourself to death. Seriously Mad, watch it.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3474030]

>>3474011

>I want to build an underwater base because I want to build an underwater base, even though it's completely pointless.

That's the best reason to do anything. And as long as there aren't many underwater bases, wealthy people will pay big bucks to visit yours. Presto, business model. We need cheaper ballast and hull materials, plus cheaper, lower energy ways to make fresh air and water if it's going to become something that's not just for the rich.

Pic related, no shortage of underwater destinations for wealthy tourists. The trick is expanding it beyond that narrow market.

[Anonymous No.3474039]

>>3474006
>implying you get to be serious

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3474065]

>>3474039

Well played. I need to update that shit one of these days. I've had a busy summer.

[Anonymous No.3474071]

1. We will study drug production medical and recreational

2. Human social stress in scientific stress enviroment

3. Undersea minerals and mining for long term establishment of /sci/ underwater research facility and improvement to other stuff

4. More stuff than I care to write, because I am starting to build this now! Aw the sweet science coming...

[Anonymous No.3474076]

>>3474071

/sci/ already designed their undersea base. Pic related.

[Anonymous No.3474077]

>>3474065
You should, they're funny fo' SRS

Apparently you got banned from SA, is that true?

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3474083]

>>3474077

I'd rather not make this a thread about me. In fact, the original subject was a cheap micro habitat for a flooded valley.

[Anonymous No.3474089]

>>3474083
aww

[Anonymous No.3474099]

>>3474006

>Usually turns to "Could I grow pot in there and hide it from the DEA"

Hey, that's a good fuckin' idea. You could probably hotbox one of these things and the view would be amazing while you did it.

[Anonymous No.3474111]

As much as I like the idea I am terrified of being inside of one if it breaks and begins to flood. That is like on the top of my list of fears, especially if it was super deep underwater.

Pic is me inside that underwater pod unit as it fills with water and I fill my pants with shit

[Anonymous No.3474125]

Undersea civilizations are more or less necessary if we're ever going to reach level 1 on the Kardashev scale.

[Sparrowhop No.3474210]

>>3474125
Underwater to reach Kardashev you on crack?
Kardashev I is already nanotech blob borgs community.
Cyborg breaths water and shits plutonium, no habitat needed. Kids are never go surface is for "air niggers (they are dumb)"

[Sparrowhop No.3474227]

>>3473762
Mad Scientist use submersible or cybernetic shark undersea carriage?
Could it be some direct dive thing? Divers please confirm you can go deepsea no equipment if theres presure cabin under there. Hold your breadth and just enjoy the ocean!