28.6.07

Biosub: Catorce días debajo de las olas


El australiano Loyd Godson vivió debajo del mar en un pequeño hábitat de 3.5 metros de largo. Pedaleaba una bicicleta fija para generar electricidad; estaba conectado a la Web; tenía un jardín de algas para absorber carbón dióxido y generar oxígeno…

Publicadas por Andrés Hax a la/s 6/28/2007

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Andrés Hax dijo...

Australian emerges after two weeks in underwater box
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 2:22am BST 19/04/2007



An Australian adventurer emerged from the bottom of a lake yesterday after spending nearly two weeks living underwater, riding a bike to generate electricity and using algae to produce oxygen.


The 'world's first self-sufficient, self-sustaining underwater habitat'


Breathing air provided by algae soaked in his own urine, "aquanaut" Lloyd Godson spent 12 days living in a yellow steel capsule submerged in a flooded gravel pit.

The 29-year-old's claustrophobic ordeal was intended to shed light on the practical and psychological challenges of living in an alien environment.

His temporary home, a 10ft long box, was billed as "the world's first self-sufficient, self-sustaining underwater habitat." Back on dry land, and toasting the success of the experiment with champagne, he admitted to suffering cabin fever.

"It starts to play on your mind a bit after 12 days obviously. You start to get a bit of cabin fever, but you know I handled it surprisingly well. I thought it was going to drive me a bit more nuts than it did."

advertisement"It's nice to feel the sunshine on the face and the breeze," Godson said after surfacing from the quarry near Albury, in New South Wales.

The marine biologist used a system of onshore solar panels and a pedal-powered generator to create electricity and recharge his water-proof laptop computer.

He kept an algae garden to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen for breathing.

A team of divers delivered food and drinking water to the sub through a manhole, including a homemade lasagna and freshly barbecued salmon.

For entertainment, Godson watched videos on his laptop and used a wireless Internet connection to communicate with schoolchildren around the world.

The 29-year-old scientist won funding for the project by winning a £20,000 contest called "Live Your Dream" sponsored by the magazine Australian Geographic.


He hopes his experiment will provide lessons for extended deep sea exploration or living in space.

"It's the first time this has been done so it's paving the way for future experiments in this area, like plant-based life-support systems for underwater or space applications, or whatever it may be," he said.

"We got some good data down there so it will be interesting now when we analyse all that and the right people will see it and we'll work on making improvements for the next one."

After Godson entered the six foot high Biosub capsule on April 5, it was lowered to a depth of 15 feet.

His partner, Carolina Sarasiti, said he was not trying to break any underwater records. "It's more of an experiment to use a few scientific concepts. He wanted to live his dream, which was to live underwater," she said.

Aside from playing a drum kit at all hours without fear of upsetting the neighbours, Godson spent much of his time sending emails and fielding queries from the public.

He said he never got lonely, with people from around the world tracking his experiment through his website. Even underwater, he was unable to escape the incessant pressures of the wired world.

"At times it has been stressful, but more just exhausting from talking all day to (website) visitors and the press. I expected solitude and got the opposite," Godson said.



Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

junio 28, 2007

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