It gives great pleasure to announce that this autumn an episode of Naked
Science entitled "City Under the Sea" will be premiering Thursday, November
11 at 10PM on the National Geographic Channel. This documentary will feature
our good friend Dennis Chamberland and the Atlantica Expeditions, First
Undersea Colony Project.

The oceans cover 70 percent of our planet. Although science fiction writers
and ordinary mortals have long dreamed of life under the sea, no human has
ever lived there permanently. But with the planet becoming increasingly
populated, can we afford to leave such a vast space unoccupied? What if we
gave ourselves 10 years to create an undersea colony where 100 families
could live? How would we do it? Where would we go? In this program we
develop a step-by-step approach for setting up such an undersea colony. We
meet experts who believe such a bold undertaking is possible and are already
developing the technology that could make it a reality.

http://discoveryenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/10/coming-this-fall-naked-scien
ce-city.html

Alex, I have a question.

In designing space habs you have to design the land area separate from the
water area. On space ship Earth there are elegant ways by which the two
interact and reinforce on another, ways that may be impractical in a space
hab.

My question is, is it possible to have a viable space hab where you have
only water? One example of this is the Dal Lake in Kashmir in India; even
human waste from house boats used to end up in the water (I don't know
whether this practice is still followed. The practice may not be suitable
beyond a certain population density). A lot of farming takes place on
floating reed beds!

Regards,
Selvaraj

On 30 October 2010 02:44, Alex Micael Bonnici wrote:

On 30/10/2010, sraj wrote:
> My question is, is it possible to have a viable space hab where you have
> only water? One example of this is the Dal Lake in Kashmir in India; even
> human waste from house boats used to end up in the water (I don't know
> whether this practice is still followed. The practice may not be suitable
> beyond a certain population density). A lot of farming takes place on
> floating reed beds!

Theoretically you could build a habitat as a waterworld- a sphere of
water and surround it with windows. You would probably want to spin it
at least a little bit, so that the air collects along the central
axis. You could put a sunshade in a 24-hour 'orbit' around the outside
on a bearing and have it give a day-night cycle.

What the wildlife would think about all this; I don't have clue, but
theoretically it *should* be viable from an ecosystem point of view,
if you pick the right critters and vegetation to go in it. You can buy
sealed globes with closed ecosystems in right now (last time I
checked), it's much the same thing I think.

> Regards,
> Selvaraj

--
-Ian Woollard

Sraj,
You'd have to figure out some complicated baffles to keep the water from
building, automatically, into tidal waves. Otherwise, with some preliminary
sculpting of the proposed seabed and with baffles added, There should be no
barrier to a rotating cylindrical waterworld for our cetacean friends and
other waterbreathing sentients. Of course, it'll take some extensive
practice with building Human habitats before we master the techniques
necessary to accomplish a waterworld habitat.
Victor.

From: sraj
Sent: Friday, October 29, 2010 10:23 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] The Discovery Enterprise: Coming this Fall:
Naked Science - City Under the Sea

Alex, I have a question.

In designing space habs you have to design the land area separate from the
water area. On space ship Earth there are elegant ways by which the two
interact and reinforce on another, ways that may be impractical in a space
hab.

My question is, is it possible to have a viable space hab where you have
only water? One example of this is the Dal Lake in Kashmir in India; even
human waste from house boats used to end up in the water (I don't know
whether this practice is still followed. The practice may not be suitable
beyond a certain population density). A lot of farming takes place on
floating reed beds!

Regards,
Selvaraj

On 30 October 2010 02:44, Alex Micael Bonnici wrote:

This topic morphed! First it was a 'habitation under the sea' meaning a closed space filled with atmosphere under the water , then it went to a kind of waterworld, like a lake people lived on but in space, and then it seemed to be talking about a world entirely of water, in space, not for us but for water creatures. Fortunately, they're all interesting scenarios. But it got me to thinking about the basic picture I have of the interior of a space colony, and it hasn't got an ocean, but what if an ocean were necessary to the health of the place, just as it is on earth? With living creatures in it?

All this speculation makes me think of the best aquarium we ever had, which was made of just mud, plants, and water we scooped up from a Florida swamp. When everything settled down, we had by happy accident I guess a really good mix of creatures and plants, freshwater shrimp, tadpoles, a spider that brought oxygen down to her underwater nest, all kinds of tiny bugs and eetsy fish, it was great, and the thing thrived with no input from us that I can remember. If it hasn't frozen yet, go do this now with your kids. If you don't have any kids, go have some. (Is that why they call it Naked Science?)

: )

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Ian Woollard wrote: