Explore the Ocean: Solutions for Deep Sea Pressure

[epr2008]

Ok, I have a question about this since everyone seems to say we are stupid for trying to explore space when we haven't even fully explored our planet. We can't explore the lowest reaches of our own oceans because of the massive amount of pressure right? well I don't understand why someone couldn't build a vehicle that exerted the same pressure out of an object as the ocean does into the object. If the pressure on that object is basically the same principle as a gravitational field with force being applied towards the center, then wouldn't it make since to exert that same pressure or force outward from the outside of the object creating a net force of 0?

 

[CeltIntuition]

Because the obvious way to make that happen is to take salty sea water into the vehicle. That might work if we were just dealing with wires and circuit boards (rubber coat everything), but your vessel needs motors.

Motors involve magnets spinning in air in response to an EM field, in your proposal we can't have our motors filled with air due to the pressure difference induced by flooding the inside of the machine with water. The only solution would be to flood the inside of the motors with salt water and that is death to a motor, huge amounts of corrosion and I bet the water would interfere with the EM field something awful.


PS. the other alternative is to have the interior of the vessel pumped to a 100atm at the surface (using air). But that just means equally sturdy construction to avoid the vessel exploding in shallow water.

 

[Gannet]

Ok, I have a question about this since everyone seems to say we are stupid for trying to explore space when we haven't even fully explored our planet.

According to NOAA back in 2000, "some estimates suggest about 95 percent of the world’s oceans and 99 percent of the ocean floor are unexplored".

We can't explore the lowest reaches of our own oceans because of the massive amount of pressure right?

No, the reason is because of the lack of will (nobody is interested) and massive amount of cash required.

well I don't understand why someone couldn't build a vehicle that exerted the same pressure out of an object as the ocean does into the object. If the pressure on that object is basically the same principle as a gravitational field with force being applied towards the center, then wouldn't it make since to exert that same pressure or force outward from the outside of the object creating a net force of 0?

1. The world record depth for experimental saturation, attained at Duke University in 1981, is 2,250 fsw, and non-Navy open sea dives have been completed to in excess of 2300 fsw.

   source http://www.supsalv.org/pdf/DiveMan_rev6.pdf"
2. If unmanned, I would filled the vessel with liquid which is incompressible
3. The concept you are proposing is used on Diving bells and Underwater Habitat, the inside air pressure equals the outside water pressure. Usually they have an open hatch for divers to egress and ingress

 

[Gannet]

According to NOAA back in 2000, "some estimates suggest about 95 percent of the world’s oceans and 99 percent of the ocean floor are unexplored".

Found some additional information about the lack of knowledge we have on the Biodiversity of our oceans. Source: National Research Council, Committee on Exploration of the Seas; 2003; Exploration of the Seas: Voyage into the Unknown; NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS; Washington, DC; p043 & 44 available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10844.html"

To date, just a fraction of the world’s marine species have been scientifically named or taxonomically identified (Winston, 1992; World Resources Institute, 2001). New species, including corals, fishes, and plants, are discovered on virtually every expedition that seeks to uncover them. Even microorganisms, such as Archaea, a primitive form of life, have been discovered by happenstance in places where conditions of temperature and pressure are so extreme, no life would be expected (National Research Council, 1995).

It is my impression, that in American society today there is an almost total lack of interest in exploring the unknown whether it is here on Earth or in space. Very few people wants see what lies beyond their computer screen.

 

[Gannet]

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/04/don-walsh-and-the-deepest-dive.html"

Fifty years ago--January 23, 1960--Don Walsh, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard climbed inside a sphere at the bottom of the "bathyscaphe" (deep-diving research submarine) Trieste and descended some 35,800 feet to the deepest place in any ocean on our planet, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench off Guam. No one has ever returned to the spot

It appears to me that the 1960s was the decade that is paramount for scientific exploration. We reached the deepest part of the ocean; lived and worked underwater in undersea habitats (Cousteau's Conshelf I, II, and III; The U.S. Navy's SeaLab I and II; General Electric's Tektite I & II, etc); and went to the Moon and back.

My definition for Exploring and Exploration – To discover and understand the unknown. I believe our only society goal is to be first to discover and do not care to understand the unknown.