June 1, 2014, ocean advocate and documentary filmmaker Fabien Cousteausymbolic grandson Jacques Costoplunged into the depths Florida Keys. Along with him were six other comrades with whom he lived on board the underwater laboratory: Aquarius. This is how it started Mission 31in which, as the name suggests, they filmed the fauna of the ocean floor for a month and studied influence of underwater life in people. These were the consequences of the mission with which Cousteau won for one day record set by his grandfather in 1963that now the documentarian wants to go further, with the construction of what would be equivalent to the International Space Stationl, at the bottom of the sea: underwater station Proteus.
The project was presented on September 30 last year at World Summit on Space and Underwater Tourism (SUTUS)held in Marbella, Malaga. There, Cousteau himself discussed both Mission 31 and the plans with Proteus, the base where aquanauts, equivalent to astronauts in space, will be able to conduct all sorts of experiments aimed both at preserving marine ecosystems and at understanding many phenomena on Earth and in space. In addition, it will also be able to host private tourism projects similar to space tourism which is already beginning to spread beyond our planet.
There is currently no release date for this underwater stationfor which funding is still being sought. However, plans for its operation are very outlined.
Proteus: a unique project
Cousteau and his team spent 31 days underwater, although some of them felt relieved halfway through the expedition. He even missed a few days VIP publicas the father and sister of documentary filmmaker and actor Ian Somerhalder.
It was not until this time that an ocean entrepreneur and conservationist noticed that marine animals they got used to his presence and the rest of the crew. So he decided it would be interesting to build an entire underwater station where the stay can be much longer. They can even reach “months or longer”.
It will be a station consisting of several modules, with dimensions 10 times more than Aquarius. Aquanauts will receive the same training as astronauts to prepare them for life in these extreme environments, but there will also be room for shorter stays in private tourism. air pressure this will be monitored to ensure that the stay is safe and that as many people as possible can be accommodated.
As for the construction site, Cousteau notes that it has just been explored. 5% of the oceans. Because of this, it can really be built anywhere. However, for the first modules, they chose a point in the Caribbean next to a coral reef. They chose this point to test the evolution of the ecosystem and the impact of human activities on it.
What will be done at the underwater station?
As we have seen, the purpose of an underwater station is similar to that of the International Space Station. There are many experiments, although Cousteau gave a few examples in his SUTUS talk.
“60% of the oxygen on Earth is produced in the ocean, so it is important to study it. In addition, we must be able to study water patterns, plate movement, etc. On the other hand, aquanaut research will be aimed at saving life and marine biodiversity, as well as supporting the research of those of us who live on Earth: we can do a lot learn about human physiology and psychology in these extreme conditions.”
Fabien Cousteau, businessman, ocean advocate and documentary filmmaker.
In fact, these extreme conditions can also be a good place to astronaut training much more accessible than space. That is to go through aquanauts before becoming astronauts.
In a word, the tasks of Proteus will be very diverse. And all this is not counting the excursions of tourists who could go diving for several hours, ending with a visit underwater station. The future is already here. And after the talks at SUTUS, neither the space hotel nor the underwater station seems to be as exclusively science fiction as it was a few years ago.
Source: Hiper Textual
