undersea station & park | concept | studies
Longer stays in an underwater station require systems to filter out Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the air that is exhaled by the aquanauts. These CO2 scrubbers generally consist of a fan that pulls air through a canister filled with Carbon Dioxide (CO2) adsorbent, such as Sodasorb or Sodalime. To get a rough idea about CO2 scrubbers and their prices visit the webpage of AMRON International.
The operational depth of the station correlates with the targeted type of users and the desired decompression schedule. There are different alternatives with their own benefits and disadvantages, which are pointed out in this chapter.
Our extensive analysis and proposals are part of the design manual.
Keeping an air filled structure on the sea-floor is more difficult than one would think. Especially during the lowering process major difficulties occurred on previous stations. We can calculate about one kilo of weight (negative buoyancy) per liter of air inside the station (positive buoyancy). The dimensions are huge: imagine a space of 50 m² with a height of 2m, which equals 100 tons of counterweight. At the same time it has to be considered, that these weights have to be lifted again in the end of the mission. For ecological reasons we should find a way to leave the weights on the site and to use a material that would not harm the environment.
Our extensive analysis and proposals are part of the design manual.
The pressure difference in passenger planes is easily understandable if you take a soft and empty plastic bottle, close it at the highest position of your flight (in the upper part of the image) and watch again while landing. You will see that the pressure makes the bottle shrink (in the lower part of the image). Continue reading “Pressure Experiment”