The first step in the Deep Sentinel program, one of the most ambitious ocean-engineering projects in decades, will be completed this year. This initial step, called Vanguard, will shelter three aquanaut-scientists at depths of 100 meters. Eventually, the project will create a modular underwater habitat system that will let scientists live underwater for weeks at a time.
  • merde alors@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1011·
    6 days ago

    Because of its narcotic effect at high pressure, nitrogen shouldn’t be breathed by humans at depths below about 60 meters. So, at 200 meters, the breathing mix in the habitat will be 2 percent oxygen and 98 percent helium. But because of its very high thermal conductivity, “we need to heat helium to 31–32 °C to get a normal 21–22 °C internal temperature environment,”

    😮

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.netEnglish
        5·
        5 days ago

        Apparently when doing saturation diving like that you can’t even understand what the other person says, between the helium and the pressure the voice is too distorted to be intelligible.

        You can communicate with a computer that transforms your voice to be intelligible but it is really not a pleasant conversation so you can stay there for weeks without having a conversation except for the bare minimum.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish
        29·
        6 days ago

        Hmm… maybe not? The low density of helium at 1 atm is what causes the amplification of higher frequencies in the voicebox, but in a pressurized container the gas would be higher density so it might offset the effect… I think?

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      19·
      6 days ago

      What they mean is they will need to use the amount of energy that you would normally put into air to get it to 31° C, but the helium will only get to 21° C. At no point will the helium actually be 31° C.

  • nialv7@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    6 days ago

    If anything goes slightly wrong I die instantly you say? I need to sign up NOW

    • jonne@infosec.pubEnglish
      71·
      6 days ago

      Yeah, wouldn’t mind that for the next 4 years or so, possibly longer.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    20·
    6 days ago

    Space is hard to get to, no gravity, and there’s radiation.

    Underwater has high pressure, corrosion, and no natural lighting.

    When you get an air leak in space, you find the hole and patch it. When you get a leak underwater, you don’t have to worry about it at all because it takes care of things in microseconds.

  • Blackout@fedia.io
    15·
    6 days ago

    I have an idea. Let’s stick all of the world’s billionaires into a submarine and see if lightning strikes twice.

        • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.ukEnglish
          9·
          4 days ago

          What part of the opening rationale was incomprehensible?

          “With current diving at 150 to 200 meters, you can only get 10 minutes of work completed, followed by 6 hours of decompression. With our underwater habitats we’ll be able to do seven years’ worth of work in 30 days with shorter decompression time. More than 90 percent of the ocean’s biodiversity lives within 200 meters’ depth and at the shorelines, and we only know about 20 percent of it.”

            • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.ukEnglish
              6·
              4 days ago

              Humans are the ones tooling and retooling these units for specific purposes, which can be done far more efficiently in situ in an underwater habitation. Along with any other human activities that will be occurring, such as immediate study in a dedicated lab facility.

  • KillerTofu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2231·
    6 days ago

    Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘It belongs to the poor.’ ‘No!’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘It belongs to God.’ ‘No!’ says the man in Moscow, ‘It belongs to everyone.’ I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well.

  • FreshLight@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    612·
    6 days ago

    Will it be filled to the brim with billionaires so it can also malfunction and we are on time for the annual billionaire sacrifice to the sea gods?

          • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
            22·
            6 days ago

            I now wonder if part of the reason that all happened is because the controller battery died, so they couldn’t ascend.

            • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
              6·
              6 days ago

              Nah, the shell cracked, pretty much instant death. Dodgy tech works until it doesn’t, only the first critical failure matters

              • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
                1·
                5 days ago

                Well duh? I’ve read the reports. I mean that maybe they went too deep because the controller died. Eg, dude holds button that tells controllers to go deeper. Controller dies… Sub just takes last input and keeps going deeper until it hits the catastrophic depth.

                Guy was an idiot for sure, I just wonder if the controller played ANY role at all.

                • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
                  1·
                  4 days ago

                  It seems unlikely… The vessel wasn’t up to the challenge of anywhere near that depth, and they intended to go that deep from the get go.

                  I mean, it could be, but Bluetooth shouldn’t work like that - it’s a digital signal with a bunch of failure modes in the spec. You’d have to code it particularly stupidly to have that kind of problem - it’s a very time-synched protocol, even a sudden disconnect with no disconnect signal is something a coder would have to confront explicitly if they were using off the shelf components

                  I’m not one to bet against bad code, but the decompression seemed to be pretty much instant and within the planned trip, it just seems like it doesn’t survive oscams razor

                • bstix@feddit.dkEnglish
                  1·
                  5 days ago

                  The plan was to go to the Titanic, which is on the bottom of the sea. Controller malfunction or not, the hull was the issue.

      • Furbag@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Add in “But harvesting it angered the psychic primordial shark that we worship as a god.” And you’ve got the rough plot for the water planet from Kotor 1.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      16·
      6 days ago

      Sure when in air. Not so much for underwater or really anywhere where they have to deal with a pressure differential, either positive or negative, where large flat sides are detrimental.

    • kerrigan778@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      6 days ago

      The hexagon is only stronger than a circle if you’re gridding it.

      EDIT (stronger for the TOTAL material used)

      • UnrepentantAlgebra@lemmy.worldEnglish
        19·
        6 days ago

        Nah if you only build a 2D structure, you won’t have to worry about the water pressure because your structure will likely not be able to interact with 3D matter. It’s genius engineering IMHO.

  • itsonlygeorge@reddthat.comEnglish
    31·
    4 days ago

    If your looking for me
    You better check under the sea
    Cause that is where you’ll find me
    Underneath the
    Sealab, Underneath the water
    Sealab, At the bottom of the sea.

    About 4 years late, but whatever.