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Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#101

Post by RugnirViking »

Shivetya wrote: post #79
hutzlibu wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I don't know if a project like that can actually happen in the observable future." Why not give him a try raising enough money to accomplish it? In todays time anything can go viral quickly. Maybe it will be only enough for a small, limited one? Maybe only design work? If you support maritime exploration, why not out of general principle also this? Maybe it goes off. In the context of saving the oceans and climate c…

Heck, let him go to #kickstarter for it and sell everything from souvenirs to actual trips to the facility. his customers can include full on science groups to everyday citizens with obvious disclaimers you have to meet specific medical requirements.

The scale of fundraising on Kickstarter is not even close to the scale of funding a project like this requires. The largest Kickstarters in history (which this would not be) are in the realm of $20 million.

This project will need $135 million, and it's not clear even that will be enough, but my guess is no. For reference, estimates put the actual ISS cost around 150 000 million (150 billion)

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#102

Post by RugnirViking »

tommilukkarinen wrote: post #70

If I build underwater real-estate, there are no laws governing it? There probably aren't laws anywhere in the world about it? Probably I can still be harassed if it's in national waters. But if it's in international waters? Nuclear reactor test site?

There are plenty of laws (in this case, more like 'treaties') regarding international waters and use thereof. You can't do whatever you like, you certainly can't avoid all laws there. Usually you will have to flag your structure as being part of a nation and then follow their laws while onboard.

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#103

Post by jimbob21 »

executive wrote: post #90

We already have an ISS of the Sea. Many believe this 'International Swimming Station' is the real ISS. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Buoyancy_Laboratory

That seems to be just a pool to mimic zero gravity, which I would not equate to the ISS in ocean form at all

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#104

Post by robomartin »

sradman wrote: post #58
krick wrote: post #38

Not sure how much of a news story it is. I also want to build the ISS of the sea, I always did. Now, I don't have a famous granddad with whom I share my last name, but even if I did it's not like it's enough to build ISS of the sea. The article is written in a very dreamy tone and contains very little substantial information. It firmly assures that "Proteus will be" such and such, as if they are making the finishing…

> I would prefer if journalist learned to provide something more factual and informative in their stories It is deeper than that (no pun intended); many journalists seem to be lacking the critical thinking skills required to judge whether a story passes a basic sniff test when it comes to science and technology. The Proteus project is not the ISS of the Sea, it is a vanity project. Clickbait from cnet is par for the…

At some level I think we should stop calling it "journalism". The state of journalism in general is pretty sad, not just with regards to science and technology.

The amount of effort required to get down to actual information after reading most stories (about anything) is not trivial. In other words, they are now in the mode of writing click-bait pieces for traffic and letting interested readers to the work real journalists used to do in order to produce substantive material.

The simplest example of this are very short articles with an enticing subject line and lots of ads on the page. After reading such articles (and feeling cheated) you immediately go to Goggle and have to track down such things as the company URL, research papers, historical context, current state of the art, supporting documentation/legislation/whatever, and then apply some critical thinking. Yeah, what we have today, at many levels and kinds of organizations, is far from what I would call "journalism".

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#105

Post by themaninthedark »

bambax wrote: post #10

Jacques Cousteau was a horrible person, both personally (bigot, anti-Semite, pathological liar) and professionally. It's inexplicable that he passes for a defender of nature when in reality he "explored" things by blowing them up with explosives and destroyed unique sites, etc. The grandson is a different person of course; but he invokes his grandfather's name as a reference and proof of competence. Don't fall for it…

I wonder if we could get a number of people to destroy their Apple devices by pointing out the fact that Steve Job was an absolutely horrible person.

Drove a car without plates so he could park in handicap spaces, Denied his daughter was his, etc.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and the entire culture was dictated by him, it is inexcusable to say that Apple products are separate from that.

Or we can say that unreasonable, and even bad people also have good points and that we want to try and take the good they have accomplished and build upon it. This does not mean we have to celebrate the person.

Jacques Cousteau much like Steve Jobs did not develop many of the things we think about when their names are mentioned but they both worked to promote and popularize their fields.

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#106

Post by robotnikman »

noetic_techy wrote: post #87

Can I ask the obvious question? What good is a stationary lab in one spot in the ocean? Didn't we do plenty of that in the 70's? If you really want something interesting, build a sub that can park itself in stationary locations or some sort of crawler lab with legs that do minimal impact on the floor and have the ability to reach the deepest parts such as the Mariana Trench. The ocean is huge and parking in one spot…

IIRC navy subs are capable of parking on the seabed, though they definitely cant reach as deep as the mariana trench.

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#108

Post by usrusr »

raxxorrax wrote: post #57
hobbescotch wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this not the premise of the Life Aquatic by Wes Anderson? Essentially we are shown a satirical representation of Jacques Cousteau where Zissou (the Cousteau-type) wants to blow up a shark and fakes discoveries of obviously made up sea creatures.

One of my favorite movies, really a piece of art if you like the humor. But I didn't actually notice the reference although it is really obvious thinking about it. Even the red cap.

But did he also have a real life Seu Jorge who could only play Bowie? Those scenes are when it hits me hardest: all the characters are lost, somehow bound to Zisou with no outside life that they could defect to, but the environment they are trapped in is one of extreme beauty.

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#109

Post by cbsks »

noetic_techy wrote: post #87

Can I ask the obvious question? What good is a stationary lab in one spot in the ocean? Didn't we do plenty of that in the 70's? If you really want something interesting, build a sub that can park itself in stationary locations or some sort of crawler lab with legs that do minimal impact on the floor and have the ability to reach the deepest parts such as the Mariana Trench. The ocean is huge and parking in one spot…

Some science experiments require visiting the same patch of ocean repeatedly. Having access from an underwater lab means that scientists can spend more time doing science and less time traveling to/from the site and decompressing.

My uncle is a marine biologist and spent time living in an underwater lab in Florida. Aside from all the diving he was able to do, he said it smelled like a high school locker room and everything was damp inside.

Re: Jacques Cousteau’s grandson wants to build the ISS of the sea

#110

Post by hutzlibu »

RugnirViking wrote: post #101
Shivetya wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, let him go to #kickstarter for it and sell everything from souvenirs to actual trips to the facility. his customers can include full on science groups to everyday citizens with obvious disclaimers you have to meet specific medical requirements.

The scale of fundraising on Kickstarter is not even close to the scale of funding a project like this requires. The largest Kickstarters in history (which this would not be) are in the realm of $20 million. This project will need $135 million, and it's not clear even that will be enough, but my guess is no. For reference, estimates put the actual ISS cost around 150 000 million (150 billion)

Star Citizen raised 300$ million in crowdfunding.

Sure, you probably will not get to that level for a science project - but at least some extra money would be good.

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