Since the first post about these marvelous habitats was well received, I thought I'd share more of my favorite installations with you. There are just so many, and such a dizzying diversity of architectural styles!
The first I'd like to cover this time is Queen Victoria Station, Australia's own Antarctic lab and the f...
2019-05-28 04:15:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Well well well. Welly welly well. At long last, a solution to the tunnles problem. It's not quite as neat and compact as it could've been, but it can still be if my parts guy ever tracks down those 2 inch diameter connectors. Until then, this solution...is acceptable. Also, HamCopter is completed. Test flight without hamster to commence imminently, followed by a manned (hamstered?) flight. The big aquarium is also drained and cleaned out, although I have some decisions to make before I ...
2019-05-22 08:53:06 +0000 UTC View Post
The fact that there exist manned installations at the South Pole probably doesn't surprise you. It just isn't relevant to the average person's day to day life. But many of these facilities are uniquely engineered due to the unusually harsh, challenging environment of Antarctica. The result? A wide variety of beautiful, interesting structures which support the needs of scientists performing all manner...
2019-05-17 20:08:43 +0000 UTC View Post
I heard your righteous cries, my dudes, and have finally worked out an exercise wheel that generates power. What exactly such a small amount of power can be used for is still an open question. I've also attached the threaded gate valves to both habitats, and have a certain...aerial surprise...coming up in the near term that you won't want to miss.
2019-05-14 02:41:23 +0000 UTC View PostThis one's very recent history, having taken place in 2005 and 2007 (there were two missions, the first 10 days and the second 14 days). It was a project undertaken by an accomplished Italian diving club, at the price of a cool 1.4 million in total.
2019-05-07 08:26:44 +0000 UTC
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You read that right. Rougerie is among the very small club of men and women whose full time job it is to design structures that will go on or under the water. There's just not a terribly large market for that, so only so many people can make a career out of it. But Jacques Rougerie is the most famous and lauded of the...
I hear you! Webcam stream and exercise wheel generator! I've got the first up and running and I'm working on the second one. Lots of other cool stuff in this video, it's an eventful one despite the short length. I just didn't feel good today but really wanted to show you guys progress is happening.
2019-04-24 05:15:51 +0000 UTC View PostThat's right, future. Not historical this time. Manned undersea projects aren't relegated to the past! If anything improving technology and increasing interest in taking advantage of oceanic resources is leading to the rebirth of this long neglected dream.
Not a lot to show this week, waiting on parts, acclimating the hammies to living in the same enclosure.
2019-04-16 08:40:51 +0000 UTC View Post
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I've blogged about underwater habitats before, but they were all government or corporate funded projects. Bio Sub is one of the few brought to fruition by an individual. Marine biologist Lloyd Godson conceived of Bio Sub 1 as a way to demonstrate fully bio-regenerative power and life support.
2019-04-09 23:43:00 +0000 UTC
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Found some fittings that match up with the threaded connectors on the new gate valve. They are not quite right for the tubing but I now have a lead on what part to get and where to get it, as well as something tangible to hand them when I ask about what hose will screw onto the valve I bought. Also some merch shilling since my phone battery is dying and getting it replaced is surprisingly costly.
2019-04-05 06:43:44 +0000 UTC View PostThis is gonna be a somewhat morbid article. You'd think I would love the idea of a massive deep sea base, but it was being planned for a very sinister, bleak purpose.
Very few applications are valuable enough to justify the enormous ex...
2019-03-30 09:19:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Still searching for the correct fittings. I've gotten closer but still need to find out what hose screws onto these threaded gate valves. If I can't find it I may just bite the bullet and order a 3D printer.
2019-03-26 02:14:10 +0000 UTC View Post
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I've written before about human habitats in the ocean, and it's been my experience that while everybody and their uncle knows about the ISS, very few people are even aware that there exists an undersea equivalent. Aquarius Reef Base, the only open ocean, offshore, undersea laboratory still in operation today.
2019-03-23 06:55:20 +0000 UTC
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Minor setback with the modular tunnle system. Looks like we need detachable unions after all. TO AMAZON! Until then, enjoy this glimpse at my sweet ass eBike that I put together with crypto booty between 2016 and 2017. It's the hottest thing on two wheels that isn't just a supermodel whose feet have surgically been replaced by wheels for some reason. Who would do such a thing? What are you even on about?
2019-03-23 06:46:40 +0000 UTC View PostWhoooooooo lives in a peanut under the sea? So-vi-et A-qua-nauts! It does look like a peanut, right? I mean what the fuck even is that? I guess given the time period it was designed similarly to their Soyuz spacecraft, which also consists of two mated sections that are...
2019-03-17 00:25:22 +0000 UTC View Post
More major progress on MegaHab construction! Whew, things are really moving along. Gotta keep the underwater hamster program on schedule, or the rats will pull ahead. We cannot allow an underwater rodent habitat gap!
2019-03-12 02:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostI've covered almost entirely US underwater habitats so far, which I plan to rectify with a couple of articles on the Soviet side of the 'Man in the Sea' era. At the same time that the US and Soviet Union were racing to the Moon, there was another, less widely publicized race to es...
2019-03-09 00:52:19 +0000 UTC View Post
At this point I am basically just Batman with hamsters. Except I don't fight crime really. Or do much of anything except invent things that nobody on Earth has any legitimate use for. Except objectivist uberhamsters I guess. And really, in the end, isn't that what matters? Not the destination but the friendships we made along the way, and the discovery that the power was inside of us the entire time.
2019-03-05 03:38:27 +0000 UTC View Post
To this day, the La Chalupa is considered the best design for an underwater habtitat. It rolled all the lessons learned from prior habitats into one unit, and benefited greatly from those design improvements.
2019-02-28 07:34:48 +0000 UTC
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Let me know in the comments what videos to include in the playlist! The iPod has 16 gigs so there's quite a bit of room, with the videos edited down to the same resolution as the screen. I will keep working on the smaller of the two media players and hopefully figure out what render settings will produce a video that actually plays on it sometime in the near future.
2019-02-25 03:24:21 +0000 UTC View Post
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Deployed to a depth of 50 feet in Great Lameshur Bay, Virgin Islands back in 1970, the Tektite undersea habitat predated Skylab by three years. It was in fact intended to be a sort of 'trial run' for Skylab. Someplace where human behavior ...
Sorry for being a day late! The drill bit on my hole saw broke, you'll see in the video. Also sorry about the low resolution, I had the render settings set incorrectly. On the upside the actual process of adding water tight docking collars to both habitats went about as smoothly as I could possibly ask for. Stay tuned for details about the upcoming contest!
2019-02-16 02:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostAegir is among the small club of habitats ever to be successfully deployed deeper than 500 feet, and the only one to be deployed off Hawaii. Talk about a dream assignment! As beautiful as the Hawaiian islands are, the really stunning sights to see ther...
2019-02-11 20:16:32 +0000 UTC View Post
By dumb luck it turns out I can partly disassemble the gate valves and mount them perfectly flush to the habitat wall without boring a huge messy hole, and thanks to included o-rings, possibly without needing silicone sealant except for where the bolts penetrate.
2019-02-08 08:12:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Well would you look at that. I thought only famous, wealthy people had to deal with this shit. I'm just the underwater hamster guy. This person's post history seems to indicate they have prior experience with blackmail, too.
Please leave them alone for the time being. I am contemplating going to the cops and don't want them to have any grounds for complaint, that I incited mass action against them or wh...
Showing the newly arrived gate valves and tubing that will connect them, explaining how I intend to connect and disconnect the habitats while submerged without flooding them.
2019-02-01 12:10:22 +0000 UTC View PostHelgoland was an odd duck. Named for the archipelago it was deployed near, Helgoland was unique in that it was the only habitat of the golden age of Man in the Sea projects to be designed for such cold waters.
You asked for it, I got it. It will be going on over a topical application of a credibly recommended industrial sealant however just to be doubly sure, then will come the second leak test. The road to Hampture is fraught with as many perils as life has doors, Ed boy.
2019-01-26 09:10:13 +0000 UTC View PostPardon the lack of a video tonight. There's been a death in the family which has demanded my time and attention. There will be a new video in 3-7 days.
Anyway, why cover two in a single installment? Because Sealab 3 was actually just Sealab 2 with some minor additions and a yellow paint job instead of white (contrary to one of the illustrations). Below you can see the fully upgraded Sealab 3:
