Deep Sea Habitat

Humans have only explored roughly 5% of the ocean despite the Earth being 71% water. As technologies develop, however, interest in deep-sea exploration seems to be going up, along with the plausibility of such ideas. The problem with current underwater exploration, however, is the fact that researchers can only stay under for short periods of time before needing to resurface. This also leads to the range of areas they can explore being severely limited. If we really want to effectively study the ocean and its inhabitants, we need more permanent habitats for underwater applications. Building long-term or even permanent undersea structures would greatly aid in the speed and efficiency with which we explore and learn about our oceans. This campaign is no easy task, though, as the deep ocean is incredibly inhospitable to anything not specifically adapted to live in it. There are a variety of dangers lurking beneath the waves, including but not limited to wildlife, lack of oxygen, extreme cold temperatures, and the most pressing issue (no pun intended), the crushing pressure that only ramps up the further you go down. All of these factors must be taken into account and addressed if deep sea bases are to become a reality. Fortunately, we can take inspiration from similar, real-world designs and ideas and build off of them to create something better and more suited for this specific application. The following instructable will explain, step-by-step, how to build a livable, self-sustaining underwater habitat.

In order to make a livable underwater habitat, a variety of resources and devices will be required. These include:

• Titanium (this will be the main building material for the structure, so a lot will be needed)
• A 15 kilowatt permanent magnet synchronous generator
• 700 oz water distillation machine
• Electrolysis machine
• Small, raised planting beds with fertile soil inside
• Several kinds of seeds (examples include lettuce, mustard greens, and bush bean seeds because of their fast-growing nature)
• Carbon dioxide scrubbers

The building material that will be mostly used in this design is titanium. This is because it is an incredibly durable material used in the real world for underwater applications. The structure will consist of a double hull. The exterior hull, or light hull will be 10 inches thick. This will be able to take any damage that would have gone to the second hull inside and will take some of the pressure off of it as well. The interior hull, or pressure hull, however, will be much thicker and heavier, and will be made of 20-inch thick titanium. Its main job will be to take most of the pressure from the surrounding water. The body of the structure will be 200 feet in length with a diameter of 30 feet. 

On the sides of the habitat will be 4 ballast tanks. There will be two on each side and they will consist of 10-inch thick titanium with diameters of 10 feet and lengths of 25 feet each. The habitat will also have 6 titanium ‘legs’ able to be deployed when approaching the ocean floor and retracted into compartments on the bottom of the habitat when not in use. The legs will be 20 feet long with diameters of 3 feet. To make energy underwater, the habitat will implement a turbine on the top connected to a generator inside. This turbine will spin when the habitat is in motion, or when underwater currents hit it if the habitat is stationary. It will utilize dual, 15-foot-long blades that are flat in order to catch the currents as much as possible. Finally, to mobilize the habitat, a propeller will be attached to the rear. It will be 30 feet in diameter with four 13-foot-long blades and a connection point in the middle measuring at 2 feet in diameter.

The interior of the habitat will include all of the functions required to make it inhabitable, including energy, food, water, and oxygen production. To make energy underwater, a permanent magnetic synchronous generator will be installed inside and connected to the turbine on the roof of the habitat. This will be used to power the other machines that produce necessary resources in the habitat. Water production can be accomplished with a distillation machine, preferably one that can hold a few hundred ounces of liquid. The machine will heat seawater to a boil, condensing the steam that rises into drinkable water and storing it in a separate container. Raised planting beds will be implemented to provide a steady supply of food. Raised planting beds can produce a variety of fast-growing crops to act as a food source once initial rations run out. A few plants come to mind, such as lettuce, with certain strains taking around 60 days until they are ready to harvest, bush beans, which can take as little as 50 days to grow as well as enrich the soil they are planted in, and mustard greens, which take 40-60 days to grow. While there are many other great options one could grow in a habitat such as this, the important element to focus on is variety, as too much or too little of certain vitamins and food types can be detrimental. Last but certainly not least, the topic of oxygen production is arguably the most important issue facing a habitat such as this. Luckily, with the process of electrolysis, the crew can take the water collected through the distillation machine and separate the oxygen from the hydrogen. Because the average person breathes around 300 gallons of oxygen per day, this process must be done in large quantities. One issue with this process is that carbon dioxide is released, which can be deadly in certain amounts. To solve this problem, CO₂ scrubbers will be installed to absorb excess carbon dioxide in the air.

In conclusion, long-term and permanent deep-sea bases could open up a whole new world of exploration of the oceans we never thought possible. With ideas like this, maybe someday we will understand our oceans and the creatures in them better than we have before. As technology improves, habitats like this are becoming more of a reality, and I believe that it is only a matter of time before self-sustaining habitats are utilized for long-term underwater research. Because there is so much that is currently unknown about the ocean, there could be things down there that we never thought of, and possibly even things we can exploit to better society. However, we'll never know unless we start exploring.