Saturday, September 18, 2010

An informative promotional video.



Thanks to a fan of the comic for producing this art crime in Gmod. The propane tank at the end was added because I'd mentioned to him that if I can successfully build a series of increasingly larger and more complex habitats, I'd eventually like to buy a used outdoor propane storage tank (big enough to stand up in) and try my hand at converting it into a one man habitat rated for submergence in perhaps twenty feet of water.

MarineLab was repurposed from a used gas storage tank as well, so this is about what I could expect in terms of interior space:

A step up from my current apartment, anyway. I'd set up in the lake that I sometimes visit during the Summer, as I could run a waterproofed power and air hose from the cabin down to it. Trying to operate a habitat like this with a surface bouy would get very costly, very fast, because it would be constantly burning gasoline to drive the generator and air compressor. A powerline from the surface makes more sense, and if you're going that route, you may as well put the air compressor on land too. Not quite as cool as Hampture's self contained bouy system, but affordably supporting a human being underwater for extended periods necessitates certain compromises.

That's getting ahead of myself, though. First I must send a hamster to the lake's bottom, where he will become a rugged industrialist titan.

8 comments:

  1. Just watch out for those Ultra-violent zombies.

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  2. The aquatic zombie remains the number one impediment to the colonization of the seas. D:<

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  3. I've been enraptured (ha!) by this project since your post on /sci/. Is there any chance that you can post some of the specifications of the equipment you're using, for those of us who are playing at home? Diameters of hoses, lengths, volumes, specs of the equipment, things like that. I'm interested in doing some of the math.

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  4. I'm using an Azoo battery backup air pump with an integrated NiCD battery and room for two additional D cell batteries. It provides 0.15cfm at 30 inches of depth from each of two outputs and claims to operate at that rating for 14 hours. The hose length will be an inch or so short of the max depth for safety, so the habitat will be just a hair less than 2.5 feet deep. IIRC the average adult dwarf hamster breathes 250 times per minute and though I don't recall their lung volume I did work out at the time that it would take fifteen such hamsters to overwhelm the ability of the air pump to refresh the atmosphere.

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  5. any ideas on how much this project will cost?

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  6. Hampture Mk.1: $100
    Hampture Mk.2: $300
    Possible human habitat: ???

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  7. I'm loving the sea-lab but where is my Objectivism? Hamsters should have to earn their keep by generating power on hamsterwheels. Does a Hamster not deserve the fruit of his labors?

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  8. Good idea! That's the sort of thing I'd add for the second habitat, though. The first one's more of a prototype. I will be hanging a "no gods or kings, only hamsters" banner inside the habitat however and printing out a tiny copy of Atlas Shrugged.

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