UK’s 1st ever underwater ‘CITY’ unveiled with Mars-grade tech & tiny homes so far under sea residents speak in ‘squeaks’
THE UK’s first ever underwater “city” has been unveiled with Mars-grade tech and tiny homes deep under the sea.
The underwater habitat dubbed Sentinel, is designed to house people at depths of 650ft for up to 28 days at a time.
8
8
8
Ocean tech company Deep said they are hoping to make “a permanent human presence under the oceans” possible as soon as 2027.
Deep have already put in motion their incredible plans at a quarry in Chepstow, Wales, which was formerly a scuba diving site.
They have already built a 60-metre long steel underwater habitat of a prototype shell which will become a Sentinel Simulator.
DEEPS President Sean Wolpert told ITV News: “What we’re trying to do is reconnect humanity with the sea.
“This is the alien world that we need to have a better understanding of.
“More than half of the oxygen that we breathe comes from the ocean. To protect it we need to love it. To love it we need to understand it.”
At the moment, deep dives at the site are restricted to just minutes at the bottom, followed by days of decompressing to avoid the bends.
Living in a capsule where the air pressure matches the water pressure outside, divers can be lowered directly into the water via a moonpool and stay out for hours.
It means that the crew have to breathe an oxygen and helium mix, which has exactly the effect on their voices you’d expect.
Sentinel’s creators say it will let people reach the lower limit of the Epipelagic zone – the “deepest point” that sunlight reaches into the ocean.
This is an extreme depth that can’t be reached by humans without expensive and specialised equipment, say Deep.
But the British sea-exploration company says its Sentinel home will also let humans live in relative luxury.
Rick Goddard, was seen looking at six soundproofed bedrooms and two bathrooms.
He said: “Because people will be spending up to a month down here sub sea, it needs to be comfortable, and part of that is it needs to be big.
“This is a 450m3 habitat and every element of it is designed to be comfortable so that people want to come back as opposed to going home at the end of a mission.”
According to Deep, the Sentinel is designed to have a service life of about 20 years.
Part of the experience will also be enjoying stunning views of the ocean.
Guests will be able to look out at the deep sea – including through giant windows right at the foot of the bed.
8
8
8
And during that time, it could be dropped in a location, picked back up, and then moved to multiple different locations.
It means that Sentinel owners don’t have to stick to one spot forever.
They’ll connect to the outside world using a satellite communications buoy – and will take advantage of renewable power.
And Deep also says that each Sentinel habitat will have a “large-scale bio-reactor” for treating waste – which means you won’t need to pop out into the ocean to empty the tank.
The number of people that a Sentinel habitat can hold varies, and Deep says the choice is really yours.
“The Sentinel System is as suited to short-term, six-crew deployments as it is to 50-crew, multi-nation, semi-permanent research stations,” Deep previously said.
Table of Contents
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“And thanks to the modular design, operators can reconfigure, repurpose, and relocate components between – and even during – missions, all without the need to take them up to the surface.”
The company is expected to launch its first habitat as soon as 2027 – but sadly there’s no public info on how much one of Deep’s sea homes will cost just yet.
8
8
LIVING UNDERWATER – HOW DOES IT WORK?
Here’s how Deep’s director of scientific research Dawn Kernagis explains ‘saturation’…
“The basic principle that allows humans to live underwater is called saturation. Here’s how it works,” Dawn said.
“Once a diver has been at a particular depth for a long enough period of time, their body will become ‘saturated’.
“That means the body has absorbed all of the dissolved gases it’s going to at that pressure.
“The tissues in the body are in equilibrium with the partial pressures of the inert gases present in the diver’s breathing gas (for example, nitrogen in air, or helium in heliox).
“The diver will still need to go through a long decompression to safely return to the surface, letting those gases release slowly to minimize the risk of decompression sickness, also known as ‘the bends’.
“But once saturation is reached, the diver can stay at the bottom for days, weeks, and months without needing any additional decompression time.
“All they need is a place to stay down there and the basics to sustain life (food, water, oxygen).”
Picture Credit: Deep
Click Here For More Tech News
