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Lloyd Godson, a 29-year-old Australian marine biologist, spent the last 13 days submerged in his local wetlands in a home-grown submarine. He was fulfilling a long-time dream.
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His submersible, a 9-cubic-meter metal box, was an experiment in self-sufficiency. Air, water, and electricity were all generated or recycled on board during his stay: he provided electricity by riding a bicycle connected to a turbine, and maintained his air supply with a coil of algae that Godson watered with his urine. The whole space was only slightly larger than the space required by the Geneva Convention to hold prisoners of war.
During his stay, Godson conducted regular "virtual classroom" sessions with Australian school children and used his non-housekeeping hours to "relax".
Godson got funding for the project after winning the "Live Your Dream" Wildest Adventure competition run by Australian Geographic. "The thing that differentiates this project from a lot of other underwater habitat programs is that it's not a billion or a million dollar program and it's not using conventional methods,'' Godson told The Courier Mail. "Also, there's a lot of unknowns. That's the excitement factor for me. We'll find out!"
