[imagesource:deep]

A UK-based engineering firm, called DEEP, has said it’s planning to create a “permanent human presence” under the oceans from 2027.

The company hopes to create futuristic modular habitats that will allow people to live underwater at depths of up to 200 meters.

The Sentinel Underwater Habitat planned as a customisable station that will provide living spaces, communal areas, and research labs for scientists studying the underwater environment, for up to 28 days at a time.

Steve Etherton, President of DEEP’s arm in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said in a statement that there is a need to preserve the oceans.

“The oceans sit at the centre of many of the generational challenges the world is facing, and they also offer opportunities we have not even begun to comprehend. They are the source of at least every other breath we take. They influence the weather. They influence the climate. They influence us.”

“DEEP will enable scientists to operate at depth for extended periods of time and we hope, in some small way, will contribute to our understanding of this life-giving environment,” he continued.

And it’s also much easier to get to than Mars or the moon.

The ‘modules’ will, in theory, be fuelled by “renewable power” and linked to a satellite communications buoys on the surface. The company also claim they’re developing a large-scale bioreactor that will be able to treat all waste without the need to regularly empty tanks.

The units making up Sentinel will be designed for a lifespan of at least 20 years, and once completed, can be shipped to any part of the world.

Despite many lofty plans and grandiose schemes by a number of startups, it appears that DEEP is actually getting traction on their Atlantis-style plans. The company wants to flood a quarry in the UK, formerly known as the National Diving & Activity Centre, into a 600-meter long and 80-meter deep water facility for training, testing, and research.

The company is also speaking with international investors, so perhaps they will actually pull this one off. The idea seems much more do-able than Elon’s Mars cities, and Richard Branson is sure to jump at the chance to have an underwater hotel.

Take a serene ASMR tour below:

If the sea levels are rising as the climate crew claims, it might not be a bad idea. It sure beats having to move to the moon.

[source:ifls]