Some rich folks think the future of human habitation is on Mars. But at least one deep-pocketed investor suggests an alternative is right here on Earth—under the sea. The Guardian explores an ambitious project known as Deep underway in Wales. It's being funded by a single anonymous investor, with the goal to establish a "permanent human presence" beneath the sea by 2027, writes Lisa Bachelor. The testing is taking place at an abandoned quarry near Chepstow, now flooded. Engineers are building a human habitat in the 260-foot-deep artificial lake, made up of interlocking individual units called sentinels. Submersibles would ferry people up and down—and engineers insist theirs are safe, rejecting comparisons to the fatal breakup of the Titan submersible in 2023.
"The goal is to live in the ocean, forever," says Mike Shackleford, the project's chief operating officer. "To have permanent human settlements in all oceans across the world." While similar experiments have taken place over the years, Deep is the largest-scale one to date. The story explains that scientists still have much to learn about surviving at depths where no human was meant to survive, and an above-ground simulator will help with that. The challenges aren't all life-and-death: Chef Joe Costa, for example, discusses the difficulty of preparing meals for underwater occupants. "The first hurdle was the challenge of actually being able to taste anything at depth because your tastebuds are suppressed by the pressure change," he says. The food he prepares would therefore be too strong for landlubbers. Read the full story. (Or read other longform recaps.)
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