The £100,000,000 underwater base where humans could live underwater by 2027

Ever wanted to be like SpongeBob SquarePants and live underwater?

That dream could be coming true, although the living quarters look a bit different to Bikini Bottom.

This modular ‘habitat’ is where six or more people might live and work together this decade, up to 200m below the ocean’s surface.

Sounds crazy? Remember that astronauts have been doing it in space for almost 25 years, and diving down below would be easier than launching a rocket.

A mysterious company called Deep wants to ‘make humans aquatic’ and is doing just that from their base in Gloucestershire, near the border with Wales.

Deep explicitly compares its product to the International Space Station, saying that the day of its first deployment will begin ‘the era of humanity’s continuous presence underwater’.

‘That day will go down in history as the day our species went to the ocean, and never looked back,’ they say, and have given 2027 as the target.

There are various reasons why humans might want to live in the sea for a month.

It is very difficult to spend any length of time at such depths, but if we could, we could do much more scientific research into the deep ocean. It would also be easier to examine shipwrecks, and conduct salvage operations.

Scuba divers who previously used the flooded quarry they’re using for research as a dive school were confused when it suddenly closed down, but in 2023 the reason became clear when the company announced its plans.

The 50-acre National Diving and Activity Centre site is now a £100,000,000 research hub to make the ideas a reality.

The project is funded by an anonymous rich backer reportedly willing to put hundreds of millions into making our species ‘become a natural part of the oceanic biomes and environments, developing a deeper understanding and wisdom, and co-existing sustainably with a thriving ocean’.

Its underwater modules make up the ‘Sentinel’ underwater station, and are intended to be deployed wherever they are needed, and then reused elsewhere.

How can a human live underwater?

Deep say that it’s very possible for this to happen, and that humans have been living in space where there also isn’t any breathable air for years.

The main problem is the water pressure, which can lead to diving illness The Bends if you return to the surface too quickly.

‘Once a diver has been at a particular depth for a long enough period of time, their body will become “saturated”, scientific research director Dawn Kernagis said in a blog post.

‘That means the body has absorbed all of the dissolved gases it’s going to at that pressure. 

‘The diver will still need to go through a long decompression to safely return to the surface, letting those gases release slowly to minimize the risk of decompression sickness.

‘But once saturation is reached, the diver can stay at the bottom for days, weeks, and months without needing any additional decompression time. All they need is a place to stay down there and the basics to sustain life (food, water, oxygen).’

More to the point, humans already have lived underwater, in submarines and also in underwater habitats such as Conself and Sealab in the 1960s, although these were not submerged at the depth Deep aims for.

Deep’s research diving lead Phil Short said that his biggest inspiration was Jacques Cousteau’s ‘Starfish’, the habitat for 1963’s Conshelf Two mission.

‘They ate fresh lobster, sent down in pressure cookers. They drank wine with their meals.  They even had a pet parrot, who they introduced to the parrotfish swimming by the habitat’s window.’

The habitat was filmed in the documentary ‘World Without Sun’ , which includes a scene where a diver is given a cigar after getting back into the module.

‘Basically it’s what we’re working towards at DEEP,’ Phil wrote. ‘Underwater habitats that have good food, comfort, a bit of privacy, amazing dives, and enable learning about the ocean.

‘I can’t promise parrots or cigars though.’

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