Original story

Transcript of address to UN Security Council by Chairman of UN TechCom, 13.6.2019

Children of Aqua underwater research project

keywords: TechCom, COA, Children of Aqua, underwater research, Aquanaut Programme, additional SC budget funding

The field research team under the auspices of the UN Children of Aqua project yesterday marked up six months underwater, without once having surfaced during this time. The team members are all equipped with a specially-designed water-suit, which absorbs oxygen from the surrounding water and allows the wearer to breathe normally at diving depths.

As you will all be aware, the COA project was launched some eighteen months ago, after the UN cancelled its Aquanaut Programme. The reason was the tragic loss of all the aquanaut children in a tank accident. Following this disaster, the United Nations put together a committee of marine experts who presented a report recommending that the continuation of genetic adaptation for life underwater carried too high a risk and was likely to cause unnecessary suffering to the children involved in the experiment. Instead the experts contacted a number of research establishments in the marine biology sector and together with these established a broad-based project team which took the name Children of Aqua, as a permanent memorial to the aquanaut babies.

Last year COA presented its prototype water-suit, which has a number of quite astonishing properties. You will I hope forgive me if I use some technical terms to describe these, but I do this in order that you may be aware of the importance and possibly the revolutionary impact of this research.

The most important feature of the suit is that it is capable of absorbing oxygen from seawater through its surface. In order that the surface-area should be as large as possible to maximize oxygen intake, the outside of the suit is deeply lined and folded, as you can see from this illustration. The oxygen is absorbed into a chemical solution which binds it very efficiently. The chemical solution is circulated through a kind of branchial artificial gill-system, after which oxygen is released for the diver to breathe. From the gills, the solution is passed back to the surface layers of the suit and oxidised once again - thereby guaranteeing the diver’s continued supply. The exhaled carbon dioxide and the other major gas present in air - nitrogen - are circulated via a different route to a chemical filtering unit which removes the carbon from the CO2, leaving the greater part of the oxygen - and also nitrogen - available for re-introduction into breathing system. In other words, there is little oxygen loss in the course of the cycle, and the intake through the folds of the water-suit is adequate to make up for any shortfall, allowing divers to work and live at depth without needing to surface.

At present, it is necessary for divers to remain at traditional aqualung depths, since the nitrogen contained in the air being breathed may cause decompression sickness (“the bends” - resulting from dissolved nitrogen in the bloodstream) and nitrogen narcosis, the intoxicated state sometimes known as “raptures of the deep”. In uninterrupted dives lasting perhaps several months or longer, nitrogen cannot be replaced by helium as in the case with short deep-sea forays. Helium is a poor insulator, and if a diver breathes and uses the gas for long periods, he will risk hypothermia. Naturally it is possible if necessary to heat the water-suits electrically, but no conventional store of energy can be expected to last for several months. Hence the diver’s own body has to maintain a stable temperature, and nitrogen remains an integral component in the gas being breathed.

On the positive side, oxygen toxicity is not a problem for the COA divers, since the processor in the water-suit adjusts the pressure of the oxygen in accordance with the current depth at which the diver is working. If this were not so, then the pressurized oxygen would condense at greater depths - in fact already at depths of less than 100 metres - to the point where it becomes toxic; in other words the oxygen is so strong that it begins to burn the diver’s lung tissue.

According to an interim report issued by COA, whilst results to date have been very encouraging, the technology of the water-suit is nevertheless far from being perfected. The problems referred to above will have to be addressed and solved if man wishes to dive without danger to greater and more useful depths. One possible solution currently under investigation is that of producing in the water-suit a continuous chemical reaction which would generate small quantities of heat. The search is on for some kind of catalytic component that might allow the fusion of small quantities of magnesium and oxygen dissolved in sea water. This would generate enough heat to allow for the replacement of nitrogen with helium, freeing divers to work for long periods at depths down to 500 metres. If this were possible, then nearly all of the world’s continental shelf areas would be open to detailed exploration.

There is one small but familiar obstacle to the further development of the COA project, and that is funding. The latest round of cost-cutting measures called for within the UN, along with the increasing expense of peace-enforcement troops in several countries, has led to serious reductions in the annual allocations made to COA operations under the TechCom budget. With budgets at their present level, COA cannot continue this valuable work - in fact, I may as well tell you that the financial position is so dire, they have funds enough to last them only until the day after tomorrow.

For this reason I have approached you in this unusual fashion, honourable members of the Security Council, to urge you to make available funding with which to continue this project. I can assure you that the potential results, both in terms of our exploitation of the riches of the continental shelves and in terms of our understanding of life in the deeps, are nothing short of colossal, and I am sure I do not need to remind you that it is in all our interests that this be a truly global venture, and not fall into the hands of unscrupulous private speculators. Thank you for your attention.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 2/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: ei; arviointi-ikkuna on 2014–2024
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: vain osatekniikoina
  • Ilmiön ydin: puettava keinotekoinen kidus erottaa merivedestä riittävästi happea ja mahdollistaa kuukausien vedenalaisen oleskelun.

Suljetun kierron hengityslaitteet ja vedenalaiset elinympäristöt pidentävät sukellusaikaa, mutta meriveden vähäinen happipitoisuus tekee pienestä puettavasta keinokiduksesta erittäin vaikean. Kuuden kuukauden yhtäjaksoista oleskelua tällaisella puvulla ei ole saavutettu.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui vain vedenalaisen elämän tukitekniikan osissa, ei ydinlaitteessa.