Diving in the year 2025 and 2050

[D1V3R]

by 2050 the dive tables will have become sooo conservative that the no decompression limit for 50 feet is 5 minutes
(anybody else notice that trend? my 1990 PADI table alows for almoist double the bottom time as my 2000 SSI table)

 

[LSDeep]

Classes will be done totally on computer and internet.

Tables will no longer be used.

Swimming will no longer be required.

Complete certification will be done in 2 da....

Wait a minute.... Say WHAT????? Sorry, I must have dozed off reading that last thread..

ROFL, you poss will not be required to dive anymore but do that with your cybersuit online

 

[mike_s]

.

One other thing. I can imagine a 12,000 PSI tank. It wouild have a pre-regulator" built into the valve that supplies a 3,000 psi to the current technology first stage. The tank would be very small and light. But we'd need a new maerial to build tanks with. Some kind of carbon I'd guess.

Someone made a 4500psi tank in the last couple years. some fiber wrapped tank. But they couldn't get anyone to build a valve for it. Maybe they can by the time 2025.

I'd also like to see a thin wetsuit (3mm or thinner) that can provide the same if not more thermal protection than a 7mm. Maybe made of another material?

Tilos makes a 1mm that they claim is as warm as a 3mm. I'm sure it will only get better by the year 2025.

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

We'll all be wearing compact rebreathers like this guy:

BTW this is Hans Hass in a Draeger rebreather in the 1930s

 

[SteveAD]

instead of an artificial gill to extract disolved o2 why not an electrolysis based system to crack h20 molecules into h2 and o2 with the h2 used to inflate the microcapilaries in the bouyancy control wetsuit and the o2 used to recharge the wallet sized completely failsafe cost less than a weeks salary rebreather. and the hud mask is still 10 years down the road.

 

[abysmaldiver]

How about a mask with night vision. Ditch those lights and canasters.

 

[ReefHound]

instead of an artificial gill to extract disolved o2 why not an electrolysis based system to crack h20 molecules into h2 and o2

Or just get an injection of supercharged artificial red blood cells and stay underwater on one breath like turtles and dolphins and seals? This story was just printed in last month's Popular Mechanics.

***********************
HOW WE'LL BE ABLE TO Hold Our Breath for an Hour
Weddell seals can stay underwater comfortably for more than an hour. As concrete-shoe wearers have discovered, humans can't make it past a few minutes. Why not? The seals don't have enormous lungs in comparison to humans--but they do have extraordinary blood, capable of storing great quantities of oxygen. Robert Freitas, a research fellow at the Institute of Molecular Manufacturing, has published a detailed blueprint for an artificial red blood cell, which he calls a respirocyte. Injected into the bloodstream, these superefficient oxygen-grabbers could put the scuba industry out of business.

As Freitas envisions it, each respirocyte--a ball measuring a thousandth of a millimeter across--is a tiny pressurized gas tank. Inject the balls and they course through the blood vessels, releasing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide in the body's periphery and recharging themselves with oxygen in the lungs. Freitas says respirocytes would transport oxygen 236 times more efficiently than red blood cells--and a syringeful could carry as much oxygen as your entire bloodstream.

It seems like an oddball idea, but Freitas actually has some competition. A group of NASA-funded bioengineers at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Minnesota have created double-walled artificial cells, called polymersomes, that can potentially float through the bloodstream loaded with cargo: cancer-zapping drugs, imaging agents--and, yes, extra oxygen. Durable, chemically controllable and biocompatible, polymersomes can be dried and rehydrated, which makes them appealing as an artificial blood. Unlike Freitas's O2-pumping nanobots, an oxygen boost from a polymersome would be a one-shot deal--one that would allow you to leave your diving equipment at home.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/medicine/2713146.html?page=3&c=y

 

[shark.byte.usa]

I don't know if I can even fathom what diving will be like in 19-44 yrs. I just saw a report on CNN a couple days ago that IBM has developed a chip that works 250-350 x's faster than chips currently marketed and will be manufactured in 2 years. That alone will change alot. Guarantee SP and the other manufacturer's will have embraced online sales or be out of business.

 

[mike_s]

How about a mask with night vision. Ditch those lights and canasters.

Coooool...

I'm sure Oceanic will get right on that as soon as they finally release their HUD mask.

 

[knucklebusted]

2025 won't be that much different. Evolutionary steps will occur. BCD's will be better, cheaper and simpler. Weight belts will be non existant (hopefully) and buoyancy will be an automatic trim on the BCD. Regulators will be bulletproof and a tank, maybe a (carbon fiber) CF40, will have enough pressure to double the dive time of an AL80. (I play paintball and 4500 PSI carbon fiber tanks exist today and are pretty light)

By 2050 you won't need a tanks, weights, BCD, regulator, wet suit or a dry suit. There will be a belt you put on and it will form a cushioned/insultated/air bubble around you. No deco or DCS again. It will be prototyped by NASA for the space program but quickly adopted by the dive industry.

You will be able to have private communications with another person simply by touching your bubble to the other persons. This will be how you buddy breath in the event of an emergency. A single person will be able to completely envelope a second person with their bubble in the event of said emergency. Which also opens up other underwater activities best left to an R-rated board.

The miracle belt will be powered by a modified fuel cell that generates O2 from sea water and can also make fresh, desalinated drinking water that you can drink underwater.

You will wear a pair of goggles but they will be more like nice sunglasses, complete with HUD and integrated PDC, vitals, GPS and logging. An image recognition database will be integrated so that you can identify a particular geographic area or marine wildlife. It will flag dangerous things audibly. You'll be networked with your dive buddy(ies) so that their air/vitals/location are instantly available. Voice communications are also possible if you aren't nostalgic for the good old quiet days.