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Habitat Entrance

The moonpool of habitat Hydrolab
Moonpool of Hydrolab

(Updated 04.07.2020; added new visualizations; minor additions/corrections to access tunnel) Surely one of the most complicated area of an underwater structure for human occupation is the habitat entrance. It is the local water-air interface, vulnerable to changes in pressure by tidal movements on the surface of the sea; its hatches have to bare potential pressure differences between the habitat interior and the surrounding water; no object that is only a little bigger than the greatest diameter of the entrance can be brought into the habitat. It is constantly wet and humid and the only gateway for medical assistance. But to see in detail let’s have a look at the different sections of the entrance complex. Continue reading “Habitat Entrance”

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Undersea Station: Initial Financing

financing an undersea station

(Updated 11.06.2020; added new sectors of potential financers, like tourism, environmental protection etc.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: This article is similar but not identical to Operational Financing. For information on the other matter please visit the corresponding article.

In the past years we have seen that it is very difficult to attract investors for the initial building of even a small habitat. In the beginning we concentrated on scientific institutions who always were very interested, but not able to lift the initial costs. Before we start to calculate the initial costs we should define the sectors of potential application, rethink the habitat design to cover the demands of as many of these sectors and then refine the initial costs. Continue reading “Undersea Station: Initial Financing”

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Undersea Station: Data Processing

Calamar Park UI(Updated 15.05.2020 – Added noise recognition to Concept Map, improved article structure etc.) The Digital Data Processing of the station will be of major importance. Beside the conventional functions of the IT systems we should use the opportunity to establish a completely new approach concerning the User Interface (UI) and the system’s interaction with the aquanauts. Continue reading “Undersea Station: Data Processing”

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Undersea Station: Water Supply

Water Supply: Image by James Petts from London, England (Stream of water) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons(Updated 09.02.2020: link concerning average need of water for a human being updated) Event though our station is surrounded by water we can not use it for most of our needs. Therefore for some demands we have to establish a sweet water supply. The easiest way is to bring sweet water from the shore and to fill corresponding tanks. Well, what kind of water do we need? Continue reading “Undersea Station: Water Supply”

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Branch & Bound

(Guest article by user Mike, thanks for contributing) By common definition, Branch & Bound is a mathematical algorithm to solve integer optimization problems. But simplified versions of Branch & Bound are also applied to find best fitting technical solutions manually. It is a useful tool for making fundamental decisions, such as the selection of a synthesis route during the project development of a new chemical factory complex.

In the context of CalamarPark, the design of the underwater habitat is such a fundamental decision: Should it be small or large? To operate at what depth? Ambient or atmospheric pressure? A certain design might be perfect at one location, but only second choice at another. Continue reading “Branch & Bound”

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HUNUC

The following article was published by CalamarPark on Wikipedia in German. Feel free to correct grammar mistakes of this translation and publish it on Wikipedia in English. The illustration has also been made available by CalamarPark and is accessible on Wikimedia under the Creative Commons Licence [CC BY-SA 4.0].

HUNUC (abbreviation for Habitat of the University of Natal Underwater Club) was South Africas first underwater laboratory. However, the facility was destroyed shortly after its positioning due to conceptual errors and bad weather conditions. Continue reading “HUNUC”

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BIOSMHARS

Bacteria isolated in dairy product (representative image)BIOSMHARS was a 2-year (2011-2013) research project co-funded by the European Commission under FP7. It was the first phase of a joint EU-Russia research effort to develop the scientific and technical tools for a comprehensive approach to the challenging issue of biocontamination inside manned spacecrafts. (project page; final report as pdf)

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