SEABROS, ASSEMBLE! Today begins Aquarius' latest underwater mission!

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541153]

Here's the streaming video feed:

http://www.ustream.tv/aquariusreefbase

Saturation began this morning, research on methods to locally control the Ph balance of the waters in which coral reefs reside will begin tomorrow. Here's the mission schedule for 2011:

http://aquarius.uncw.edu/missions/2011/

You'll notice the next NEEMO mission is coming up. Here's a three-part "NASA Edge" tv special about past NEEMO sea/space analog missions, where astronauts use the Aquarius to simulate a base on another planet, with weight harnesses that simulate precisely the gravity of the moon or Mars:

part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbmy0Wd3fA
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS1SEY-e5gA
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHp4_k4KHzg

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This is a new addition to my pic collection and a very rare one; A color photo of the AEGIR habitat that was sunk to 520 feet off the coast of Hawaii. It's very hard to find pics of it which is a shame since it was enormous and of interesting design.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541203]

Here's an overhead view of the Aegir. Note the multiple interconnected pressure hulls. Back then, getting large sophisticated subsea bases funded was much easier. These days we'd rather blow it on the military I guess.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541212]

A diagram of the interior of the Aquarius, the world's only dedicated subsea research station.

[Anonymous No.3541213]

>biology
>hard science

CHOOSE ONE

[Anonymous No.3541215]

Hey mad, is there a good website catalog for weather balloons?

[Anonymous No.3541220]

..Wow. How far underneath is that thing? I've never heard about it until now, which is incredible.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541221]

Another rare pic; Hydrolab, but from the inside. Lots of exterior shots exist, but this is the only interior view I could find.

[Anonymous No.3541228]

>seaology
>hard science
>choose one

[Anonymous No.3541235]

>torturing hamsters
>hard science
>choose one

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541255]

>>3541220

>..Wow. How far underneath is that thing? I've never heard about it until now, which is incredible.

It's in 60 feet of water, which is deeper than it sounds. Visualize it in terms of multiples of your height.

The deepest planned habitat 'Sealab III' was at 600 feet or so, but had to be cancelled due to soviet sabotage. AEGIR is the deepest successful one I know of at 520 feet. Most were stationed between 200 and 300 feet, although for studying reefs you need to be in the first 100 feet of ocean depth.

>>3541215

>Hey mad, is there a good website catalog for weather balloons?

No idea, I was looking to buy mine off of Amazon. Turned up the cheapest price for a large diameter weather balloon in Froogle.

Pic: Hydrolab exterior. This was NOAA's undersea lab before the Aquarius was built.

[Fast paced tempos !!TMq6FoEFyM2 No.3541266]

>>3541153
Eveytime I join the stream (like, right now) it seems like one of those crappy hollywood movies with underwater scenes of science labs. Just the camera man swimming around, taking shit takes and people waving to him.

I mean, I'm not that much into marine biology, but I sure wouldn't mind to actually see something. How long do I have to wait around till they go swimming/studying?

P.S.: Wasn't try to bash you here, bear that in mind. I'm just annoyed.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541278]

>>3541266

>How long do I have to wait around till they go swimming/studying?

See the embedded twitter feed? They announce live events there. Usually filmed from an aquanaut's helmet cam.

Pic related, seabro suiting up for an EVA.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541291]

How aquanauts will do deep sea EVAs in the near future; Nuytco's "Exosuit".

[Anonymous No.3541297]

>biology
>hard science

pick 1

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[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541328]

Here's another currently active lab, although it's rarely mentioned because it's so rudimentary. Baylab is in Chesapeake Bay in around 30 feet of water. The design includes a ballast tray that can be used to float the lab out to different sites, then you shovel sand into it to sink the habitat. The entire thing runs off of a 12 volt system and contains hot-swappable battery pods to keep equipment running for long periods without any support from the surface.

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The abandoned remains of Jacque Cousteau's Conshelf 2 research colony. Only the submersible docking station is still there.

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Lloyd Godson chilling in his homemade underwater pod.

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Here are two of the three modules that made up Conshelf 2, the largest manned undersea installation in history.

[Fast paced tempos !!TMq6FoEFyM2 No.3541372]

I really like you commitment to this. There might be no one looking (although there is me, for at least another hour) and you keep posting.

P.S.: Do you work with this stuff or something? I never really got into paying attention to threads, so I don't really know...

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541375]

Here's the third, Deep Cabin, which was stationed at 90 feet (whereas the other two modules were at 30 feet)

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541387]

>>3541372

>P.S.: Do you work with this stuff or something? I never really got into paying attention to threads, so I don't really know...

No. I majored in 3DCG. Although I do combine both interests from time to time. Pic related, a visualization I did for the Atlantica Expeditions of 'New Worlds Explorer' habitat clusters.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541395]

Here's a rare pic of the interior of Deep Cabin.

[Fast paced tempos !!TMq6FoEFyM2 No.3541418]

>>3541395
Amazing how they had landlines, hehe.
>>3541387
3DCG, Marine Biology.
Quite the different fields, how did this happen?

[GAY !1BuTTsexks No.3541619]

All your photos seem kinda... gay

[Anonymous No.3541645]

>>3541619
>Engineer
>Not gay

pick one

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3541968]

>>3541418

I've got a ton of ideas for products to make living and playing underwater safe and cheap. However in order to sell those ideas to investors I needed to be able to visualize them in a professional looking manner. I already have a strong background, mechanically, from the projects I've done for several years now. The 3DCG skills help me design projects and illustrate them for the sake of someone considering putting money into it.

It's also the kind of skill set you can use to freelance, making money intermittently as you need it rather than a committment to a fulltime desk job. It hasn't worked out like that (I still need to take shit tier cubicle jobs to cover everything) but it's been sufficient to fund side projects.

Pic related, homemade diving helmet. I'd like to mass produce one injection molded in one piece from transparent thermoplastic for under $100.

[Anonymous No.3541986]

Mad Scientist do you even lift?

[Anonymous No.3542005]

damn i did'nt think any one cared that the ocean is turning acidic and going to die. thanks so showing me some hope OP

[resident /sci/ economist !!0CqB7P/574e No.3542012]

Hey SeaBro,

>bunch of manly scientists all being shirtless in a lab

Awesome

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3542023]

>>3542005

>damn i did'nt think any one cared that the ocean is turning acidic and going to die. thanks so showing me some hope OP

They've made great strides too. Methods ranging from manipulation of herbivore diversity to artificially accelerating coral growth with electrical current have proven effective, but the implication is that coral reefs will need to be on human designed life support until we can get oceanic acidity back under control

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[Anonymous No.3542213]

>>3542178
I love all kinds of underwater technology, but that design...

Oh my gods that's one ugly piece of equipment.

[Blackman No.3542217]

>>3542178

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3542261]

>>3542213

Heh. I agree, but for what it does (traps a pocket of air that is constantly replenished from a scuba tank for breathing) it requires you to sit upright. Hard to see any other way to design it.

Ambient dry subs are not much more expensive, your entire body is out of water and they don't need to be structurally strong because they don't hold out ocean pressure. The downside is they cannot go any deeper than a typical scuba diver and you must still ascend slowly.

Pic related, one of herb Jaubert's excellent dry ambient subs, cost about the same as a bass boat.

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[Anonymous No.3542419]

>>3542261
I mainly take offense at the horrible air-bubble.

Looks like it has low visibility and a lot of redundant structure.

If you removed that and bolted your Black5gallon™ in it's place it would look better and afford a better view.

Or you could just use a half-globe of transparent plastic to get a good view and keep the hydrodynamic drag low.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3542425]

>>3542419

Making the helmet a separate part makes sense, but there's also an argument for integrating it. Less weight on the person, keeps the vehicle in one piece, etc.

What might be cool is if the helmet was separate but connected to the vehicle via retractable tether. And the vehicle carries many air tanks, so you can stop at interesting sites, get off, walk around and explore, then return to the vehicle and keep going.

[Anonymous No.3542472]

>>3542425
This talk about the diving scooter is giving me some STRONG flashbacks from Startide Rising.

In it, the scooter had a large-enough canopy so that when you needed to go solo, you could put on a mask and a small rebreather. Of course, it also had several canopies for the use of sapient dolphins when doing work at depth, but that gets a bit off-topic.

[Mad Scientist !!Q11PG81nz2n No.3542498]

>>3542472

Life imitates art. We're just reaching the point where undersea tech is so mature that they're selling the kinds of vehicles and equipment that used to be reserved for military and scientific use to civilians as water toys. The moment it really dawns on the public that homesteading the sunny tropical shallows in international waters is a realistic option it'll be unstoppable. It won't be for everyone but I imagine there's a large enough market for create independent economies in the larger communities.

This is something that will absolutely happen, though only for the rich, and I expect it to stay that way for several decades.