Space Hams progress

Just a heads up, I am putting most of my effort lately into finally building the Sky Station, documented over on the Space Hams blog. Significant progress so far, hope to have it functional and airborne when the weather warms up.

Midwater habitat concept

Nothing says a habitat must be on the absolute bottom of a body of water. In fact, because air is so buoyant, the real challenge is keeping them on the bottom. Any air filled structure when submerged behaves very much like a balloon. So, supposing you want your hab to 'hover' at a precise depth in a much deeper lake or part of the ocean. It can be carefully weighted to neutral buoyancy and then fitted with computers that micro manage a smaller ballast tank to keep it at the desired depth, or much more simply, you can just hold it down with a tether. 

This one's not intended for animals, much too small. You'll notice it's partially flooded, this was to keep it submerged; the weight is not as yet sufficient. I'm going to either grow plants in it (short grass probably) or carve a very large circular moon pool in the bottom and use it as an RC submarine hangar. The little radio controlled Graupner microsub I showed off in earlier videos would then have someplace underwater that it can surface and 'park'. What might be neat in the future is to fit it with the electronics from one of those new short range wireless charging pads for cell phones, such that the little sub can charge in its undersea garage, and never have to surface again.

Incidentally, this "tethered balloon" habitat concept borrows from an actual undersea lab of very similar design, Jacques Rougerie's "Galathee" which could, by cable and winch, raise and lower itself like an elevator. This allowed it to also serve as a decompression chamber, or to observe specific levels of the water column.

Anyways still needs some additional weight, and really nothing's set in stone yet. Plants? RC sub garage? Please offer opinions in the comments. 

Note on Sea Orbiter

The most valuable function of the currently under construction Sea Orbiter is, imo, the ability to deploy and recover a deep diving submersible from 50 feet below the water line. The lowest deck is an ambient pressure habitat from which divers, and the sub, can freely come and go. This eliminates the most common cause of cancelled sub missions, violent surface weather. It also means, potentially, that the Sea Orbiter will be able to transfer crew and samples between various next generation ambient pressure underwater labs around the world. The submersible could be piloted from Sea Orbiter's lowest deck to the moon pool module of the habitat and back again, as well as accepting divers from the habitat for transport to other similar seafloor labs, because they can be kept under pressure for the entire trip. This evades the need for decompression and provides a link between what would otherwise be isolated undersea research sites. In that sense, think of it as the Starship Enterprise, deploying a shuttlecraft to carry crew and cargo between outposts in space. 

Hydronaut underwater research station

The ESA, Europe's equivalent of NASA, is constructing an underwater lab for training astronauts and conducting medical/marine bio research. Looks small from the outside, but the cross section reveals that it's three or four times the interior volume of Aquarius, probably the same volume as Conshelf 3 or Tektite. This is, for an undersea research enthusiast, a godsend. Between the confirmation that Poseidon Undersea Resort is moving forward, construction of the Sea Orbiter and now THIS, it's shaping up to be an exciting era for aquanauts. Some concept renders, a video tour, and under-construction photos below. As you'll notice it's designed to closely resemble a habitat lander, of the sort NASA intends to land on the Moon or Mars. It even has a down facing double door airlock to better simulate EVAs. I am particularly excited that it has a panoramic cupola identical to the one on the ISS. Should make for some stunning photo ops/footage.

Hamsub MkII?

This RC sub + waterproof camera gives me some ideas. If I could get something like this and attach the life support capsule from Hamsub Mk I. plus a can of compressed air.....

All you'd need then is a base on the lake bottom for the sub to surface inside of.

Mystery seed sprouts underwater

So, apparently a seed was dropped into the aquarium some time ago and it took root in the gravel. What you're seeing here is a sunflower (or some other plant whose seed is included in small animal food) growing underwater. I had no idea this could happen.

What now? Transplant it into soil? Leave it be and see how much it grows? Plant additional seeds of different types next to it? Seems like this calls for experimentation.