Ocean colony on a water balloon

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-01-26 16:26:11

I have had this idea lately of building a city on the ocean surface, not floating on the surface, but sitting on a water balloon that is resting on the ocean bottom, but being large enough to rise above the ocean surface, if the water pressure is high enough the water balloon will be rigid instead of squishy, like a water matress. Seeing how China is building artificial islands the old fashioned way with dirt, it seems to me that Ocean water would be a more plentiful construction material, so long as we have an inflatable balloon that could contain it. Most of the material would be water, and water would not be displaced in its construction, unlike the case if it was made with dirt and rock. I remember some previous discussion here about inflatable towers into space, a nearer term application would be water balloon islands covered with dirt and rock, it would have all outward appearances of being a natural island, but a super-pressure balloon filled with water would be holding it up. What do you think of this idea? The city would of course be constructed on top of the island, it would have a natural seeming shore with beaches and all the rest.

Last edited by Tom Kalbfus (2016-01-26 16:27:15)

Terraformer · 2016-01-27 16:28:46

Why put it in a balloon? Why not just mount it on pillars and pontoons?

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-01-30 10:12:45

Terraformer wrote:

Why put it in a balloon? Why not just mount it on pillars and pontoons?

When something sits on the ocean surface, it tends to heave with the tides and the waves, but when something sits on the ocean floor and rises above the ocean surface, it tends to make for a more stable platform. Waves crash against it rather than push it up and down by going underneath it. Japan recently built an artificial island for a new airport. When you use rock and sand, you need to do it in shallow ocean. My idea is to use hydraulic water pressure to support a stable platform above the ocean's surface, transferring the weight of what's on the platform to the ocean floor instead of the ocean itself.

SpaceNut · 2016-01-30 11:49:38

Well that is one way to get rid of all those rocks and boulders......by making your own island....plus now they get the bonus of a naval port as well...

Terraformer · 2016-01-30 15:42:25

Waves are mainly a surface problem. If your pontoons sit below the surface, they should be fairly stable.

Build pillars to anchor the island to the ocean floor, and then support the bulk of the weight on underwater pontoons.

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-01-30 19:08:43

Pontoons can still drift, if the anchor cable breaks for example due to a storm. If one makes one's own island sitting on the ocean floor, one can then claim the territorial waters around that island, just as China is attempting to do with the artificial islands it is contructing. The UN treaty on the "Law of the Sea" doesn't specify what an island should be made out of. If one wants their own country, the easiest way to accomplish it, is by building an island in the Ocean and claiming national sovereignty over it. This should be easier than building a space colony.

Terraformer · 2016-01-31 11:03:53

No, you can't. Artificial islands don't get territorial waters; they're classed as vessels.

GW Johnson · 2016-01-31 15:50:28

a quote: "No, you can't. Artificial islands don't get territorial waters; they're classed as vessels."

That's the heart of the dispute in the South China Sea today.

China says they do rate territorial status, everybody else says no. Which is why the US sent B-52 bombers close by/over those artificial islands.

This could lead to war, but that's still a fairly low probability right now. It will require settlement, or eventually there will be war over it.

"Cassandra" has spoken.

GW

Terraformer · 2016-02-01 06:12:04

I thought the deal with the South China Sea is that they're not technically artificial islands, since they're built on rocks that are already above the surface of the ocean - it's just that such rocks don't get an exclusive economic zone, being islands which "can't sustain human habitation or economic activity", as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea puts it?

Of course, as people on this forum know, whether a rock can sustain human habitation or not depends mainly on what technology you have available...

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-02-04 11:45:53

Terraformer wrote:

No, you can't. Artificial islands don't get territorial waters; they're classed as vessels.

only if they float, a structure that just sits on the ocean floor and rises above the ocean surface, is actually a building and not a vessel.

Tom Kalbfus · 2016-02-04 11:53:01

Terraformer wrote:

I thought the deal with the South China Sea is that they're not technically artificial islands, since they're built on rocks that are already above the surface of the ocean - it's just that such rocks don't get an exclusive economic zone, being islands which "can't sustain human habitation or economic activity", as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea puts it?
Of course, as people on this forum know, whether a rock can sustain human habitation or not depends mainly on what technology you have available...

This leads to an interesting idea. What if we build a water balloon ring on the ocean floor that rises above the ocean surface and then pumped out all the water in the middle, exposing the ocean floor to the air, and then we can call it "land". Would that work? Lets say we build a circular dam or dyke on the ocean floor, lets say the ocean is 100 meters deep for argument's sake, we filled the retaining wall with water to make it heavy enough to make a water tight seal with the ocean floor, and then pumped out the water in the middle. The ground below would then be land, it would be rock and dirt. Keep some pumps going to keep the land in the middle dry, and people can live here, and grow crops here. The ground surface would be 100 meters below sea level. The Netherlands has this already. So why would an artificial island that was made this way, not count as land and get the territorial waters that go with it?

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#1 2016-01-26 16:26:11

Ocean colony on a water balloon

#2 2016-01-27 16:28:46

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#3 2016-01-30 10:12:45

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#4 2016-01-30 11:49:38

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#5 2016-01-30 15:42:25

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#6 2016-01-30 19:08:43

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#7 2016-01-31 11:03:53

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#8 2016-01-31 15:50:28

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#9 2016-02-01 06:12:04

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#10 2016-02-04 11:45:53

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

#11 2016-02-04 11:53:01

Re: Ocean colony on a water balloon

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