From: Patrick Salsbury (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 10/04/98
Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19981004213715.00715fb8@mailhost.sculptors.com> Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 21:37:15 -0700 From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Subject: Re: Construction of first sphere
At 08:47 PM 9/26/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Pat, has a list begun? I want to get on it. I have had years of scuba
>experience and was the team trainer for a paramedic rescue team. I have
>been an ardent follower of Bucky's as I have mentioned before. I would
>like to go on the list as construction crew.
I'd say that this list is probably the closest and most focused one
for topics on floating cities at this point. If we manage to get the
list so full of people talking about different aspects of the floating
city projects that we have to splinter into subgroups for construction,
power, education, business, industry, economy, etc., then I'll be
overjoyed. :-)
But as it stands right now, there's just a few of us, so it's probably
best to keep the discussion here until we build a critical mass.
I'm working on the back-end infrastructure to scale discussions into
a series of sculptors newsgroups, so that as the Project grows, we can
handle more people talking in larger volume about specific issues,
without everyone drowning in too much info. It'll be a while before
that's ready, or needed, but hopefully the time will come before
too long. :-)
>I know a couple of people on
>the Monterey peninsula that could be excellent for some possible funding
>and construction assistance. I also think that the UCMB and MB Aquarium
>could be approached for some funding. It might be sold as a floating
>"research city" among the other functions and features. For the
>naysayers, it could easily float a few miles offshore, out of the line of
>sight from the touristy areas, and would make an excellent platform for
>whalewatching and day-trips. This, I'm sure has been thought of already,
>but the time for action seems to bear ever closer. Is there a list ?
>Where is the list ? Let's get one started and begin to break the problem
>into manageable packets for dispersal. We keep saying money is the only
>drawback, but are we really ready? or are we really ready to spend a
>bunch on the big-budget plan? Where to next? Any professional project
>managers out there? Let's do some active recruiting from other (banking,
>business, philanthropic, research) newsgroups and even apply to some of
>the grant houses for research funding. Hydrosphere I coming at ya!
>
I'm glad to see such enthusiasm! And I agree that we do seem to be
getting closer to an actual starting point. I'm a bit wary of the
"chasing funding" trap, though. As noted before, there have been several
other attempts that have fallen flat because people go chasing money,
get some money, and spend that trying to chase bigger money. I'm much more
of the mind to get a few guys & gals with SCUBA skills, a boat or two, and
some space to set up some solar-cells running electrodeposition on some
submerged frames. As we get things running, and actually get something
floating, we can "grow" the whole operation while we grow the hulls.
I have considered approaching the Monterrey Bay Aquarium about this,
even if just for some technical info and people to talk with. I'm extremely
interested in exploring the whole life-cycle synergism we can get from
building these hulls. Here's the basic energy/life flow process as I
understand it:
Solar/Wind/Fuel-cell/Generator power runs the electrodeposition.
Electrodeposition uses sacrificial anodes of old scrap metal. (For
example, old rusting car bodies from junk yards)
We're cleaning some of the land up by removing these rusting hulks, and:
Electrodep puts Fe+3 (iron) ions into the water, to replace the CaCO3
we're pulling out for the hulls.
Iron is one of the principle components of various blue-green algaes.
These are the basis of the food chain in the ocean.
Algaes will reduce some of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, while:
Providing food for krill, plankton, drifters, etc.
These provide food for larger fish, which we can farm in huge pens
arrayed about the city. (Mariculture)
So while we're building hulls, we're also growing food, and as noted in
"The Millenial Project", the algae itself is an excellent protein source
for 3rd world countries. Not to mention all the kelp and other sea
plants which can be harvested.
And I think that we can keep producing LARGE quantities of algae by
keeping the iron levels up, which will happen while we're building hulls,
which will be pretty much continuously. (First for the primary city, then
for "budding" cities that break off from the main one as the population
grows and ideologies shift.)
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury - http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
Check out the Reality Sculptors Project: http://reality.sculptors.com/
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