A reason for a deep sea base?

[DeepSeaBase]

I've been looking for a reason to put people at the bottom of the ocean and there aren't a lot of practical reasons. ROVs can do most or all of the work. But I think I finally found one reason that makes sense.

Hydrogen is the best rocket fuel but not not long journeys because the tiny atom leaks from the tanks. However metallic Hydrogen will not have this problem. Metallic Hydrogen also seems to have a boost in efficiency by 4x but I don't understand how.

However the diamond anvils needed to press Hydrogen into metal are at their limit, right at the limit apparently.

So what if we put the diamond anvils at the bottom of the ocean? That will add some 1000atm which may be small in the terms of total pressure needed but may be enough to make the diamond anvil capable of tolerating the job?

If so, then such a highly accurate job with sensitive equipment most certainly would need human presence to maintain and operate at such depths?

Especially given the high lag times to go to the surface and dive that deep if equipment needs replacement.

Inspired by this article.

https://www.insidescience.org/news/these-instruments-can-create-pressure-thousands-times-higher-bottom-ocean

[exchemist]

5 hours ago, DeepSeaBase said:

I've been looking for a reason to put people at the bottom of the ocean and there aren't a lot of practical reasons. ROVs can do most or all of the work. But I think I finally found one reason that makes sense.

Hydrogen is the best rocket fuel but not not long journeys because the tiny atom leaks from the tanks. However metallic Hydrogen will not have this problem. Metallic Hydrogen also seems to have a boost in efficiency by 4x but I don't understand how.

However the diamond anvils needed to press Hydrogen into metal are at their limit, right at the limit apparently.

So what if we put the diamond anvils at the bottom of the ocean? That will add some 1000atm which may be small in the terms of total pressure needed but may be enough to make the diamond anvil capable of tolerating the job?

If so, then such a highly accurate job with sensitive equipment most certainly would need human presence to maintain and operate at such depths?

Especially given the high lag times to go to the surface and dive that deep if equipment needs replacement.

Inspired by this article.

https://www.insidescience.org/news/these-instruments-can-create-pressure-thousands-times-higher-bottom-ocean

I think the technical term for this is "clutching at straws."😀

[studiot]

6 hours ago, DeepSeaBase said:

However the diamond anvils needed to press Hydrogen into metal are at their limit, right at the limit apparently

I don't know if you realise just how small these anvil instruments are, or quite how the 'pressure' is developed.

Why do you think this would increase at the bottom of the ocean ?

And how much fuel do you think you could generate this way ?

I'm sure there are lots of reasons Man wants to put bases into difficult conditions  -  Antarctica, Lunar, Space etc - so why not the bottom of the ocean ?

 

Having asked all that, full marks for dreaming. +1

Two books you might find interesting.

 

Call Me Joe is a  science-fiction novella by Poul Anderson of a 'manned' base on Jupiter.

Poul was and hugely imaginative scfi author basing most of his stuff on small extensions to known science.

 

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by David Whitehouse (not the Jules Verne novel) is real science and shows how diamond anvils have revolutionised the study of the structure of the Earth and deep earth materials.

 

[DeepSeaBase]

8 hours ago, studiot said:

I'm sure there are lots of reasons Man wants to put bases into difficult conditions  -  Antarctica, Lunar, Space etc - so why not the bottom of the ocean ?

But why the bottom of the ocean? I keep coming to this and getting stumped on the: "There's nothing that can't be done by ROVs".

Technically this is true with space exploration as well, but space exploration is immensely easier than deep sea for one reason:

Docking systems.

I actually worked on a little bit of that problem today so I'll try to post an idea I had about it.

Without docking systems, deep sea operations are lonely and costly ventures. With docking systems, like in space, all that changes.

8 hours ago, studiot said:

Why do you think this would increase at the bottom of the ocean ?

It was a far fetch, I was hoping that by the ambient pressure being higher the diamond would maintain its structure enough to get across the finish line so-to-speak. Maybe the ambient pressure has no change on the strength of the diamond?

Regardless, while a fuel depot may not exist at the bottom of the sea, the research could maybe be conducted there.

I'd probably want to reform the question to what OTHER pressure-dependent research can be done there?

In space we do a lot of microgravity research which specifically means 3-dimensional genetic research since on a plate most biological material tends to spread out 2-dimensionally and not interact well.

Deep sea advantage is pressure.

8 hours ago, exchemist said:

I think the technical term for this is "clutching at straws."😀

In this case it's more like clutching at pearls, but, really, it's hard to find a reason for people to be at the bottom of the ocean. There's no reason to be on Everest either. I'm not saying people won't go. But there's a REASON for people to do research in the space station....

 

Quote

I don't know if you realise just how small these anvil instruments are, or quite how the 'pressure' is developed.

Oh also, I have a general idea of how it works, but what I was hoping was to maintain the normal function of these diamond anvils but at a higher ambient pressure so that their structural integrity would be increased by, in this case, 1000atm.

Edited May 6, 2021 by DeepSeaBase