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Ass. of Diving Contractors
Hi, All
Well, I've had an interesting weekend, Folks.
I attended Day 1 of the Association of Diving Contractors here in Vancouver. Some interesting news!
Anyone remember Phil Nuyten? He's the walking, talking dream building diving inventor from Can-Dive
here in Vancouver.
His outfit is responsible for Deep Rover, the Newtsuit and DeepWorker 2000.
I had business in the States for most of the conference, so I missed Sylvia Earle, et al. But, I did
get to chat with Phil during a quiet moment. Here's the poop:
Phil had been working with NASA for several years on spacesuit technology. Because of his experience
with joints under pressure, it was felt that he was the best person to design a one-atm. suit for
EVA's.
As it stands now, astronauts have to pre-breathe oxygen (prior to getting suited up) to go for a
spacewalk to purge their blood of nitrogen to reduce the possibility of the bends . This is because
they have to dramatically reduce the air pressure in the suits so they can bend. Otherwise you end up
with a sort of hybrid between an overinflated Viking suit and the Michelin Man.
The Newtsuit's joints can withstand a tremendous amount of external pressure. However, internal
pressure of as little as 5 pounds will blow the seals.
I asked him if there was any shared or similar technology between the Newtsuit and his new "Swimmer
ADS" hard shell suit. He said none whatsoever. What he said next blew me away. This brand new suit
is capable of bringing a diver down to 750 feet at one atm. and going into space after the dive (my
paraphrasing - just bear with me here).
Ladies and gentleman, we have a brand new one-at divesuit that is right out of Star Trek,
honest-to-God. The promo art is right off the cover of a science fiction paperback. It's got patents
pending. His aim is to target not only the commercial/ scientific crowd, but, recreational divers, as
well. Albiet, very wealthy ones. Initial costs? $30- 40, 000. Canadian.
This thing is fully articulated and . . . are we paying attention? Fully swimmable with fins! I wish
I had my video capture software up and running. I'd scan it in and send it to Ray for posting.
In any case, NASA will be taking it into space for trials - with the appropriate modifications, of
course. No more prebreathing O2. No more long waits for EVA's
Possible unveiling: the New Orleans ADC meeting in January'99.
---------------
NEXT: A couple of us on the list had been talking (?) previously about a hard shell ambient dive suit
with pump thrustors and MinnKota's.
My idea was to use powerful off-the-shelf bilge pumps for the maneuvering jets and the trolling
motor(s) for dive site access. Minimal interior volume would conserve compensating air from bottles.
Well, freeboard was brought up as a possible downer (pun intended). Entering or exiting the
hard-shell in waves could be tricky. In chatting with Frank White of White's Diving (they manufacture
dry suits on Vancouver Island), I asked him about a horse collar that would lay almost flat while
submerged (to reduce parasitic drag) but would act as reserve buoyancy to increase freeboard for
surface activity during ingress or egress of the suit. No problem. He suggested a stretchy fabric
that would follow the shape of the bladder while inflated. Then, while collapsed it would force the
bladder up against the skin of the shell for minimal drag. It wouldn't be quite as hydrodynamic as
built in saddle tanks, but, you wouldn't be hauling around all that extra water mass from flooded
tanks, either. Ultimately, the saddle tanks may win out for the simple reason that they are virtually
maintenance free and sleeker U/W. But, quicker response would be the positive out of having a
floatation collar. The elimination of reserve tank volume (and, hence, tankage mass) may or may not
be outweighed by the use of a draggy collar. Priorities.
Rick
--
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"I love cats - they taste just like chicken"
Rick Lucertini
empiricus@sprint.ca
(Vancouver, Canada)