Help for Novel

[Grenouille]

This is not in a sunken submarine, we're talking about moving divers. The distance they can reach outside their habitat depends on how much air they have in their tanks. They're exploring wrecks to find the material they need. That's why I figured they'd try to find ways to maximize their O2 levels to reach farther wrecks, and since they can't really make their tanks bigger, I thought they could develop a technique over a long period of time, to breathe and move in a different way so that their body doesn't require as much O2 as they do in normal conditions. It might be a little far-fetched but if you take spiritual techniques, meditation, and a better control of your mind into account, given all that surprises us about the abilities of the human mind and body, I'm still not sold on it being "unbelievable." If you have other arguments, send them my way, I appreciate your help as always, guys!

 

[Rich Keller]

The technics you are talking about might help a little if you are at rest but I do not see this happening if you are working underwater. You might be better off looking at ways to move the divers further out faster and there by saving on oxygen so they can either go further or stay longer. Something very simple like a beefed up cloths line type set up used between buildings. The divers go as far as they can, anchor something strong enough to hold them off the bottom with a pulley attached to run a line through. At the habitat side of this circular line the pulley would be powered so the diver can be attached to the line and then the powered line takes him out to what was his maximum distance. He would get to that point faster, with no effort and would still have most of his oxygen so he could go further out from that point or if he is already at the wreck he could stay there longer and use the pulley system to recover the items he needs from the wreck.

 

[Sam Miller III]

It is a Sci-Fi book ???

As a Frenchman and others in the US and elsewhere are you familiar with Jules Verne's 1860 classic "20,000 leagues under the sea?"

Your proposed plot is very similar to Verne's classic work which is one of the world's most reproduced and read book. I would suggest that all go to the nearest library and check out and read "20,000 leagues under the sea."


Recall Captain Nemo was using the 1860s French R/D scuba to dive 900 feet for several hours to collect marine life and flora for his food supply. It was considered Sci-Fi at that time and apparently still is considered Sci-Fi 150 plus years later.

SDM

 

[Grenouille]

@richkeller Thanks for the tip, I'll explore the idea and see where it leads, it sounds like a great direction, I agree that movement makes the O2 thing difficult to control.

@sam miller Yes of course I'm familiar with Verne, but I wouldn't use him as an inspiration given the time when he wrote the books, in terms of the adventure and life on a desert island, he was a fantastic author, but with what we're trying to do I think it's better to get more authentic info from the modern world. Our book is scifiish but not crazy, we're trying to keep reasonable roots. Our characters don't need to dive for food, they have a growery inside their habitat.

 

[Doppler]

Subs and underwater habits use the same technology as rebreathers for "extending" gas and removing CO2... what is this book about? I cannot be arsed to read 16 pages of stuff.

 

[Diver0001]

This is not in a sunken submarine, we're talking about moving divers. The distance they can reach outside their habitat depends on how much air they have in their tanks. They're exploring wrecks to find the material they need. That's why I figured they'd try to find ways to maximize their O2 levels to reach farther wrecks, and since they can't really make their tanks bigger, I thought they could develop a technique over a long period of time, to breathe and move in a different way so that their body doesn't require as much O2 as they do in normal conditions. It might be a little far-fetched but if you take spiritual techniques, meditation, and a better control of your mind into account, given all that surprises us about the abilities of the human mind and body, I'm still not sold on it being "unbelievable." If you have other arguments, send them my way, I appreciate your help as always, guys!

I see. I was only skimming the thread. I guess I should have paid more attention.

If your divers in the habitat need more O2 then take it straight from the water. Invent some device that uses electrolysis to create a source of breathable gas straight from the water. Put it on a vehicle that they can take with them to the wreck that can be used as a temporary habitat for the divers (giving you something to work with if one of the divers has an accident/injury) and as a mobile platform for re-filling and carrying extra tanks.

In my opinion there are no believable breathing techniques that allow a person to stay conscious with Oxygen levels below a certain threshold. The breathing techniques used by free divers to extend their available time has to do with training the body to use less Oxygen by relaxing muscles. You can't do that very effectively during a working dive, though. You can play with it to a point, but if you take it too far you'll lose your audience.

With such a vehicle, you could have it fail too far out for them to reach the main habitat at which time they could apply breathing from free-diving/yoga or whatever in order to reach base. That much, people can follow.

R..

 

[Dive-aholic]

I didn't read the entire thread so my apologies if this has already been suggested. From the first several threads back in April - research the Newt Suit.

For the O2 issue -

Invention Allows Humans to Breathe Like Fish | LiveScience
The gadget that turns you into a FISH: Mask extracts oxygen from the ocean so you can breathe continuously underwater | Mail Online

 

[Diver0001]

I didn't read the entire thread so my apologies if this has already been suggested. From the first several threads back in April - research the Newt Suit.

For the O2 issue -

Invention Allows Humans to Breathe Like Fish | LiveScience
The gadget that turns you into a FISH: Mask extracts oxygen from the ocean so you can breathe continuously underwater | Mail Online

Rob, I think both of those were best described as April Fool's jokes. The centrifuge idea has been around for a while and could work in theory but IIRC the last time it came up here the calculations for how big it needed to be--on a scale from small to big--was "Yankee stadium". It wouldn't fit on your back.

The Hollywood prop is cute but it relies on somehow or other (undefined) separating dissolved oxygen from the water (kind of like the centrifuge idea) and then "compressing" it with a "microprocessor" and "micro" battery. LOL. The inventor evidently doesn't realize that "compressing" is done with a "pump". I'll be curious to see what kind of form his contraption will take once he realizes he needs to drive a pump with a micro-battery.

No discerning reader is going to believe either idea, TBH. For the author's purposes, it would be more believable in a science fiction setting if the divers had tanks that could be pumped up to 10,000 bar.

R..

 

[Grenouille]

I don't think they have what they need to design a machine that uses electrolysis, that seems pretty complicated... it's interesting though, I like the idea. I hear you on the fact that the breathing control technique is too far-fetched because of movement, it does make sense. I think we're going to experiment with the vehicle idea, it does offer more options, and allows us to still show the characters develop breathing techniques to stay still while in the vehicle (the kind richkeller was talking about) as they're on their way to the wrecks, to maximize their O2 levels. The breathing like a fish things were cool, but we need something more traditional, less crazy!
As for Doppler, thanks for asking but to quote your words, I can't be arsed to re-explain the whole thing haha.

 

[CT-Rich]

Electrolysis provides unlimited O2 from water, but it requires energy. A modern CCR rebreather would provide six plus hours of air. I think you could easily extrapolate out in to the future a small pack that could provide breathing gas for a very long time at depth. I may also be possible that a synthetic gas that is superior to tri-mix will be developed over time that will extend the divable depths to 900 feet. I would guess that anything that could make a nuclear sub survive 6 months submerged will eventually fit onto some ones back.