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.

Diving rats

This is the same behavior I observed ages ago, when I tried out a prototype habitat with a moon pool; My intention was to give the hambros a never ending source of water. What I didn't anticipate is that being surrounded by water without coming to harm for so much time desensitized them to it somehow, eliminating their natural instinctive fear of drowning. The first time one of them dove out of the moon pool and swam around the bottom of the tank (probably disoriented) I just about had a heart attack. Before I could scoop him out he returned to the moon pool and climbed back inside.

I eliminated the moonpool from future habitats mainly for my own comfort; Even having seen rodents competently swimming around in (what is for them) deep water, then returning to the habitat, I don't think I could ever be convinced that they'd always be able to find their way back in. It didn't seem natural, or reliably safe, and having a big open pool inside the habitat made it impossible to keep humidity down. Aside from their apparent willingness to take a dip, hamsters like to be dry. So, no more moon pools.

These rats, by comparison, obviously have a better idea of what they're doing. This most likely owes to their vastly better eyesight. I have much more confidence in a rat's ability to make (relatively) intelligent decisions concerning when to dive outside the habitat, and how to get back inside. Building a special, moonpool accessible habitat just for rats might be a fun experiment. It looks like I would never have to surface it; Feeding them would be as simple as dropping vegetables (like the pea in the video) to the bottom of the tank, near the habitat. The idea of competent rodent aquanauts who understand how to return to/leave their own pressurized underwater living space is pretty neat in a Secret of Nimh way. At that point it seems feasible to put a much larger habitat in an outdoor pond or lake, running a power cord from the air compressor to the grid, and let the rats come and go as they please.

Looks like someone else is monetizing Hampture.

Wonder who he got to put it into production. Everyone I contacted turned me down.

Celebrating six months of aqua hams

As winter is closing in and the aquarium is in an outdoor shed, I've brought the hambros to the surface to live in their large surface cage until it becomes warm enough to resubmerge them.

I then realized that they first began living fulltime underwater (save for brief weekly surface breaks during the cleaning and resupply of the habitat) sometime around mid April. That's a full six months. I'd call Guiness, but they'd have me committed.