Live and Breathe Underwater Indefinitely In Personal Sub or Habitat

Once you get your hands on your personal submarine, you will probably want to be able to stay submerged for long periods of time -- especially if something unpleasant awaits you at the surface. You will first need to power your sub with a super-safe and efficient small nuclear reactor. Such a reactor could power your craft while submerged for years without re-surfacing.

But you will also require clean air -- free of built-up exhaled CO2. CO2 from expired air will build up in a sub or underwater habitat if not scrubbed regularly. That is where a collaboration between Bath University chemical engineers and Duke University mechanical engineers may be very helpful indeed. Their idea promises to allow subs to stay submerged for as long as the power and food supply hold out. In involves the use of "Dixon Rings" (see below) packed in a column.

Sea water and ship air are circulated in counter-current fashion, allowing the seawater to absorb the CO2 in the ship's air.

Based on technology developed in 1948, Dixon rings consist of a fine wire mesh folded into a ring of approximately 3mm in size. The space in the wire mesh provides an extended surface area for the absorption of the CO2.

Many rings are packed into a column, through which gas and liquid flow in a counter-current direction. The combination of salt water and Dixon rings form a compact gas scrubbing unit, which removes CO2 from a closed-circuit breathing environment before safely discharging it into the sea.

Using this system, chemicals to absorb CO2 will no longer be needed in the submersible environment and time spent on the sea bed could be extended.

Prof Kolaczkowski said: ‘Chemical engineers are excited about using Dixon rings in applications where gaseous or volatile species are transferred between gas and liquid phases, and where the device needs to be compact.

‘With the Computational Fluid Dynamic modelling skills at S and C Thermofluids, we will make rapid progress with developing novel and compact gas scrubbers. The removal of carbon dioxide from exhaled air is a great application. There will be many more possibilities to consider.’

Dr Lew Nuckols of Duke University said: ‘An estimated 90 per cent of human-produced carbon dioxide is absorbed by oceans. The research at Bath, in partnership with us, could revolutionise techniques to remove metabolically produced carbon dioxide from subsea operations.’ _Engineer

When perfected, this technology will make permanent seafloor habitats and colonies possible. Eventually, similar technology may even allow for rebreathers that allow humans to swim free underwater for long periods of time, without coming back inside the habitat for air.

Of course you may also want to learn to grow CO2 utilising plants or algae insider your sub or habitat, which can also perform part of the job of CO2 scrubbing. Saltwater plants may do best. Since you will need a lot of food for an extended underwater stay, learning to grow plants in your undersea living space is not such a bad idea anyway.


Dixon rings are used in other separation processes as well -- such as the separation of heavy water from ordinary water.

Escaping the Apocalypse In Style

When everything falls apart at once, you do not have time to transfer from one type of escape vehicle to another. You need a vehicle that can move quickly out of the danger zone, and covertly past those who might want to appropriate your assets, or do you personal harm.

The U-010 Undersea Yacht is designed to travel submerged or on the surface, depending upon the needs of the moment. Surface travel is by diesel. Simple controls allow you to switch to electric power for undersea movement.

Luxurious fittings allow you to forget that the world is falling apart around you. Just pack plenty of provisions and fuel so that you can get where you are going.

More photos

Via Impactlab

Boat-Submarine Combo: Hyper-Sub

This exotic-looking boat has the ability to dive to 600 feet and back--without harm to boat or passengers. It is a boat-dry sub combination.

At first glance, some onlookers would probably think the test was a million-dollar ship sinking. But that was not the case. The Hyper-Sub Submersible Powerboat is a combination boat and submarine that is supposed to go underwater.

Developers said as a boat it can hit speeds of up to 35 mph, and as a sub it can go 5 mph and as far as 600 feet under water....The Hyper-Sub sports two-inch thick, iron reinforced glass to keep things safe inside during a dive.

"The first few times it was kind of scary. I was getting claustrophobic when the water would come over the top of the cabin where I could see. It was a little scary, but now it's kind of routine and most of what I think about is how much better we could do on the next one," said engineer Scott Shamblin.

Marion said now that his demo is up and running, his company has proved a lot of people wrong.

"Most of the submersible engineers we spoke to before we started building this told us that this was not possible for one craft. So we made history," Marion said.

Source Via Subreport

Converting this boat-sub so that it could also drive on highways should not be too difficult theoretically. In fact, designing a combination motor home, boat, and submarine should be well within the capability of most undergraduate engineering students. Actually building it is something else again.

I predict that within ten years, nanotech 3-D replicator technology will be far enough along to show the way clear to the final goal: the boat-sub-car-plane.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

Many people own luxury yachts and houseboats, but very few people own luxury submarines for living aboard. That is the way the world's militaries would like it to remain, but times are changing nonetheless.

US Submarines builds a variety of civilian subs for many purposes. Their most luxurious sub, priced at US $80 million, is the Phoenix 1000. Now that is a sub that almost anyone could live aboard. US Subs Seattle 1000 is smaller, costing only US$20 million.

The Integrity Subs model 68 also provides comfortable living conditions for a far lower cost, around US$ 5 million. Operational depth and range are more restricted than with the US Subs luxury submersible, however.

As the world sees more billionaires--particularly ones with a sense of adventure intact--you can expect to see them trying to outdo each other in adventure and luxury. This will take them places most people never go, such as the underseas, the high atmosphere, and into outer space.

Here is an interesting description of a US Submarines design for an "ambient pressure undersea habitat." Such habitats would not require special breathing gases nor decompression time. They would have to be designed differently than typical undersea habitats up until now, but the advantage of allowing untrained personnel to inhabit them would no doubt draw a large tourist crowd.

The undersea world contains many riches. Not nearly as many as the asteroid belt and the rest of the solar system, but then the undersea world is more accessible. It is likely that some of the billionaires who approach the submarine world as a novelty, may decide to invest there more seriously.

Submariners Do It Deeper

First it was Peter Robbins and his beautiful submarine. Then the company UBoat Worx began production of their sporty personal submarines, pictured above.

Now, Spanish designer Guillermo Sureda-Burgos has designed the subs pictured above. More information on the sleek design can be found here.


The most impressive personal sub of all, is the US Submarines deluxe model pictured above. Costing US $80 million, the submarine will be made explicitly for the billionaire who really does have everything.

The top of the line model is the Phoenix 1000, which at 213 feet (65.0 m) is just 8 metres short of the elephantine Airbus A380. On the surface it looks and acts very much like a normal yacht, with a flybridge and a deck for catching some sun, and a top speed of 17 knots.

But if the wind should pick up, and your stomach start to turn from riding the waves, all you have to do is dive, all the way to 1000 feet (305 m) if you want to, and enjoy the peace and quiet of the deep. And if that isn't deep enough for you, you can jump into the mini-sub and descend a further 300 metres.

....Range isn't much of a problem either, as it will easily take you across the Atlantic without pit stops. The oxygen reserves will last you for almost a month. In case of nuclear war, this would have to be the perfect get away vehicle.

Source

The perfect get away "in case of nuclear war"? Perhaps also the perfect get away in case of any number of other near existential catastrophes. All the same, it would be best to plan to expand not only undersea, but into the rest of the solar system. The best real estate may not be taken after all.

My Very Own Submarine For Christmas?

One can always hope, anyway. While Peter Robbins achieved his lifelong dream when he designed and oversaw the construction of his beautiful submarine, what are the rest of us to do?

That question has an easier answer, now that U-Boat Worx has a new line of personal submarines in production. The C-Quester model can dive to 50 meters and cruise submerged on electric propulsion for two and a half hours. The pressure hull keeps the pilot dry and at reasonable pressure, without requiring decompression. The price tag is US $85,000.

That price should fall well within the range of many affluent adventurers, and high end ocean resorts. Universities with marine studies departments may also want to look into possible external robotic add-on devices for collecting samples.

Peter Robbins and His Beautiful Submarine

Peter Robbins had wanted his own submarine since his teenage years.

Q: How old were you when you first dreamt of having your own submarine?

Peter Robbins: I was about 15 years old. I'd flunked out of a whole bunch of schools, and my father had sent me to Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts. It was an honor naval school. During my time there, I got a summer job at Woods Hole [Oceanographic Institution], and I just got fascinated with the ocean. When I graduated from Tabor, I wanted to go into a program where you started in the navy as an enlisted man and then went to Annapolis to become a submarine officer. But I didn't get a chance to do that. Life didn't give it to me that way. So I said, "Someday when I retire, if I have enough funding, I'll get a submarine going." That's what started the whole idea.

Source.

The PBS NOVA special documented the story of the Alicia, Robbins' beautiful submersible. There is currently a short preview video here, but within the next month, PBS should put the full documentary up for viewing at this website.

Currently, the Alicia is at work off the Plymouth, England, coast, conducting tours for the National Marine Aquarium. For a spectacular online short film documenting some of the building of Alicia, and an English Channel dive looking for a submarine wreck, go to this context.tv website and click on the promo trailer link or screen. Interviews are in English, narration is in German, and the photography is excellent.

Peter Robbins' story is inspiring. Watching the fulfillment of Robbins' quirky dreams should give others encouragement that perhaps their own unconventional dreams are not completely out of reach.