Deep wants to build underwater settlements in all oceans
The British company Deep is developing apartments in which people can live permanently on the seabed. A test module is due to submerge shortly.
Artistic representation of the Sentinel underwater habitat: additive manufacturing from special steel
(Image: Deep)
Elon Musk believes that the future of humanity lies on Mars. The British company Deep, on the other hand, sees it in the sea. To this end, Deep is developing several habitats in which people can live 200 meters below the surface of the sea. In the future, they will be tested in an 80-metre-deep lake in a disused quarry in Gloucestershire, near the border with Wales.
Deep wants to start with the Vanguard module, which will accommodate three people. It is intended as an underwater base for divers, for example for expeditions or rescue missions such as the super yacht Bayesian, owned by British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, which sank last year. If the divers have a base on the seabed, the duration of the mission in the water is extended.
Sentinel is modular
Vanguard is intended for shorter missions. The modular Sentinel system, on the other hand, is designed to enable longer stays at depth lasting several weeks. A Sentinel segment will have a diameter of 6 meters, making it two storeys high. It will consist of sections approximately 3 meters in size, which can be combined as required.
The modules will be made from a special steel using an additive process. Deep recently founded its production division for this purpose. Initially, the robots will build components for Sentinel. However, Deep Manufacturing is also planning to work as a contract manufacturer.
To prevent a disaster like the sinking of the submersible Oceangate in 2023, Deep says it is working with the Norwegian classification society Det Norske Veritas (DNV). This is to accompany the design and manufacturing process to ensure the safety of Sentinel.
Who is financing Deep?
It is unclear how Deep will be financed. According to the British daily newspaper The Guardian, there is a person behind Deep who wants to invest several hundred million British pounds in the project. Deep does not want to disclose exactly how much or the identity of the financier.
Deep's underwater habitat is not the first: French marine researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau, for example, built three underwater habitats called Conshelf in the 1960s, two in the Mediterranean and one in the Red Sea. In 1986, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) set up the Aquarius Reef Base underwater station off Key Largo in the US state of Florida at a depth of just under 20 meters. It is now operated by Florida International University and is used for training purposes by the US space agency NASA, among others.
Deep's goal is “to live in the sea forever. Permanent human settlements in all the world's oceans,” Mike Shackleford, Head of Operations at the company, told the Guardian. The Vanguard system is due to be launched for the first time at the beginning of this year. The first Sentinel habitat should be ready by the end of 2027.
(wpl)
