The BioSUB environment is lowered into the water.
Credit: BioSUB
SYDNEY: An Australian marine biologist yesterday began an unusual feat to prove a point about sustainability - he will live underwater for two weeks.
Lloyd Godson, 29, believes he can survive inside his airtight steel box by growing algae to produce oxygen and to eat, and by riding a stationary bike to generate electricity.
"I've always liked a challenge and I couldn't have picked a bigger one than this," he told ABC radio. "To build and live in your own underwater house - that's pretty cool."
Godson will spend two weeks inside a nine cubic metre box – dubbed BioSUB - on the bottom of a lake near his home town of Albury on the New South Wales-Victoria border. The stunt is funded by the Australian Geographic Society.
Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of the cell and producing oxygen from algae will be the most difficult elements of the experiment, during which Godson will also undergo psychological and physical testing.
"We've got some gas monitors and back-up air supplies to make sure that the air quality stays at a high standard," he said. "If it doesn't, then that's when I'll implement my back-up."
For entertainment Godson, who is also a scuba diver and adventurer, will be able to surf the Internet and play some drums he has taken into his underwater lair. Back on land, a team of divers and volunteers will monitor his movements.
Part of that team will include psychologist Nacy Radar of Ithaca College in New York, U.S., who will observe Godson's state in his underwater habitat. From the side of the lake she will use software designed for NASA to help track cognitive performance of astronauts in space. She hopes to examine the effects of isolation on basic mood state, anxiety and depression as well as cognitive functioning, including memory, attention and problem solving.
Godson is not the first to carry out such a feat, as similar experiments were carried out by NASA bio-engineers in the 1990s.
"The thing that differentiates this project from a lot of other underwater habitat programmes is that it's not a billion or a million dollar programme and it's not using conventional methods," he told Australian Associated Press. "There's a lot of unknowns, that's the excitement factor for me."
Godson said he has long been interested in sub-sea habitats and submersibles and he was looking forward to the peace and quiet of his underwater sanctuary.
"Compared to out here, it'll be a refuge from the last couple of days. I want to just get in there and get on my little camping bed and take it easy for a while," he said.
Read more about BioSUB, email Lloyd and follow his progress here.
