If We Built It Today (2019–…): Season 2, Episode 2 - Atlantis Rises - full transcript
[upbeat music playing]
[narrator] Atlantis,
the lost Utopian civilization
that sank beneath the ocean.
For more than 2,000 years,
explorers have searched
for any trace
of the island's existence.
But for the most part,
the legend of Atlantis
only exists
in our imaginations.
So now, we're curious,
what if we used modern
engineering
to build our own Atlantis?
I just think
it's an incredible shame
that is hasn't been done.
Well, we have the technology.
[man] Well,
I think it's possible
to build a city underwater
but, why?
[man] Underwater?
You have the weight
of all the water above you
trying to crash you
at all times.
[narrator] An underwater city
might sound
like science fiction,
but as our planet evolves
and populations grow,
finding viable solutions
for housing,
resources, and energy
is more important than ever.
But how would we go about it?
Here's the plan,
we're drawing inspiration
from today's top innovators
and utilizing
the latest technology
to create an out of this world
21st century Atlantis.
[Phil] No one's ever done this,
so this is what makes it
so exciting.
If you were yanked straight up,
your blood would boil.
[narrator] Now, we're wondering
how long would it take?
How much would it cost?
How many workers would we need?
Could we even do it
if we built it today?
[tense music playing]
[narrator]
The lost city of Atlantis
has been an object
of fascination
for over two millennia.
According to ancient Greek
Philosopher Plato,
Atlantis was
a mythical island nation
that existed nearly
9,000 years before his time.
Its founders, both gods
and humans created
a Utopian civilization,
it's an habitants were moral
and highly advanced.
But soon, the founder's vision
came crashing down
and the island's residents
became greedy
and morally corrupt.
Plato references
the cautionary tale
in two of his dialogues,
Timaeus and Critias.
And this is an old Greek
trope, right?
The moment that you become
too big for your breaches,
you'll be struck down
by the thunderbolt of Zeus.
[narrator] Plato's description
of the island itself was brief
yet mysteriously detailed.
Measuring the city
and island in Greek stadia
or stadium lengths.
Atlantis is
just absolutely sprawling.
[tense music]
[Eli] There's a sort of
island in the center
with concentric circles
around it.
Three water rings
and two land rings
with very elaborate descriptions
of a series of canals
and of bridges.
[narrator] Despite his lengthy
philosophical account,
Plato's texts never
specifically describe
a city under the sea.
Well, except for the part
where he mentions
the island's cataclysmic demise.
Plato writes "Sometime later",
excessively violent
earthquakes and floods occurred,
and after the onset
of an unbearable day
and a night...
your entire warrior force
sank below the earth all at once
and the isle of Atlantis
sank below the sea
"and disappeared."
[narrator] Even after years
of research,
Atlantis's existence
has never been confirmed.
Still, many people
have dedicated their lives
to trying to find the island
and some have even written
books about it.
During the renaissance,
Francis Bacon wrote,
New Atlantis.
And Thomas More wrote, "Utopia"
which both expanded
on the vision of Atlantis
as a paradise by the sea.
Then in 1882,
Ignatius L. Donnelly
published his infamous book
Atlantis,
The Antediluvian World,
which recounted Plato's
description of Atlantis
as fact,
suggesting that all known
ancient civilizations
were descendants
from the lost world.
Many of his theories
are the source of our modern
Atlantis beliefs,
like, the idea
that some Atlanteans
survived the flood
and spread their advanced wisdom
as they populated
the rest of the world.
That city of Atlantis basically
becomes the origin
of all civilization.
[narrator] Today,
thanks to special effects
and the magic of Hollywood,
we've got new glimpses
of what a city
under the sea could look like.
But now, we're taking it
one step further.
Armed with the latest technology
and modern engineering,
we're building
a reimagined Atlantis.
But, how are we gonna do it?
First, we'll need to find
some present day inspiration.
Luckily for us,
offshore engineering
isn't a new concept.
At some point, I believe
that we may go back to the ocean
where we started from.
[narrator] Phil Nuytten
has been creating
and designing deep water
diving equipment
for over 40 years.
His inventions,
the Newtsuit and the Exosuit
have revolutionized the industry
allowing divers
to operate safely
and comfortably underwater
at depths of nearly 1,000 feet.
Now, Phil's working
on a new project
that could help
make our Atlantis
a reality.
The whole plan is the thing
called Vent-Base Alpha.
People hear that Vent-Base
and they say,
"Well, so what,
like a Mars Colony?"
I say, "Yeah. Like a Mars colony"
but at the bottom of the sea."
[narrator] Phil's plan
for his underwater colony,
Vent-Base Alpha,
is to install it
next to a hydrothermal vent,
a kind of underwater geyser.
Sounds like
a pretty big undertaking.
So how is he gonna make
this massive project
financially viable?
[Phil] You do it by building it
right in the middle
of the heat vent field,
that's the black smokers
you see on TV.
Some of the more prolific
smokers here
are spewing out
pure, unadulterated cobalt
which is a semi-precious metal.
Vent-Base Alpha
is the one atmosphere,
uh, colony under the sea
where we use the suits
to go out and work.
So, you could stay down there
for generations.
I have this thought
in my mind that
someday when this is built
and I'm long gone,
some kid will be sitting
on his dad's knee
saying, "Dad, is it true
that there used to be
people up there?"
[narrator] An underwater society
that could fund itself
indefinitely
just by utilizing
the natural resources around it.
What an idea.
And Phil's not the only one
with a passion
for underwater technology.
L. Bruce Jones is the CEO
and co-founder
of Triton Submersibles.
His company designs
and expertly engineers
deep diving vessels.
More recently,
Bruce is spearheading
the development
of the world's first
underwater luxury resort.
[L. Bruce]
The concept came about
because we figured the only way
we could get a permanent
subsea human habitation built
was if it were profitable.
And we want this
to be a seven-star resort.
I mean, absolutely
massive acrylic viewport sub,
we've got a hundred seat
underwater bar and restaurant,
you know, twenty-five
undersea suites.
We've got an undersea library,
we've got a conference room,
and a wedding chapel,
so if you wanna come down
and get married,
you can do that.
[narrator] Bruce plans to
build his underwater resort
just offshore
from the tiny Fijian island
of Katafanga.
[L. Bruce] A maximum depth
of the lagoon
is about 90 feet
and we will be putting
the resort
in about 50 feet of water.
No one has
ever successfully built
an underwater resort.
All we need to do
is get our act together
and make it happen.
[narrator] And what better
way to get away from it all
than to go somewhere
no one else has ever been.
A luxurious underwater resort
sounds like
the ultimate experience.
Either of these master plans
would be the boldest
and most expensive undersea
habitats ever built.
But is now the right time
to build a city
under the sea?
[narrator] We're combining
modern engineering
and cutting edge technology
to create our own
modern-day Atlantis.
For inspiration,
we're following the leads
of deep sea innovators,
Phil Nuytten and Bruce Jones,
who've already
laid the groundwork
for burgeoning
marine technologies.
[Phil] No one's ever done this
so this is what makes it
so exciting.
[narrator]
But not everyone thinks
building
an underwater metropolis
is such a great idea.
[Brian] Well,
I think it's possible
to build a city underwater,
but, why?
[tense music playing]
I don't see what
possible problem you're solving
by going underwater in a city.
Not only, you know,
would it be cost prohibitive,
it would be ridiculously
complicated to manufacture
and completely impractical.
[narrator] It's true,
building a city underwater
sounds ambitious,
but as the world's
population grows
and our planet's
environment evolves,
it may be time to consider
just how practical
undersea living could become.
Could living underwater be
a possible solution
for humanity
in the distant future?
We live on a blue planet,
the Earth part,
even the continents,
are really just islands
in a global sea.
It should've been called
Planet Ocean.
[narrator]
Oceans cover about 71%
of the Earth's surface.
By volume, they make up 99%
of the living space
on the only planet
in our universe
known to support life.
It's estimated
that over 90% of the species
in the ocean
have yet to be classified
and 95% of the ocean itself
has yet to be explored.
This could be prime real estate
for future generations.
Not to mention,
a deep sea city
could give scientists
a better understanding
of the planet
and the evolution of life
on Earth.
[Patrick] I happen to love
the planet I live on
so to me, the idea
of investing time and energy
in the development
of technologies
that will allow us to learn
more about the oceans
is something
that's more interesting,
more appealing,
and ultimately,
I think far more rewarding.
[tense music playing]
[narrator] So here's our plan.
We want our Atlantis
to be the domed
underwater city
of science fiction fantasy,
a massive subsea habitat
that will support human life
and be the ultimate getaway,
and gateway back to the sea.
We'll call it Aquadome Atlantis.
But first things first,
building underwater does pose
its fair share of challenges.
The cold temperature,
lack of oxygen,
and the depth of our structure
are all important factors
we need to consider.
[L. Bruce] When you get deeper,
it gets to be very complicated
and potentially very dangerous.
[narrator] For some,
just dunking
your head underwater
is enough to make your ears pop
from the increased pressure.
It's because,
water is a lot heavier than air.
And the weight of water
at the ocean's deepest point
nearly seven miles straight down
is equivalent
to fifty jumbo jets
piled on top of your head.
And it doesn't take long
before those pressures
become absolutely an impediment
to building these structures
that conceivably people
could live in.
[narrator] Then there's
the problem of buoyancy.
Ever tried to submerge
a beach ball?
Now, imagine a beach ball
the size of your town.
[Jarl] It's actually
5.7 trillion pounds buoyant.
So, there's another
engineering challenge.
[narrator]
Now, we need to consider
what super strong material
can we build our dome with
to keep the water at bay,
how big can we build it
and how much pressure
can this plan take
before it breaks?
Doing anything
anywhere underwater
is far more complicated
than it would be on dry land.
Time and labor
could sink any budget.
And we certainly don't want
to take any shortcuts.
This is a very expensive project
that you can imagine.
[L. Bruce] These days,
you know, unless it pays,
it doesn't get done.
[narrator]
And if building underwater
wasn't hard enough,
how will we convince people
to move in?
One thing we know for sure,
people have been fascinated
by the concept
of living underwater
since the beginning
of the 20th century.
We think of the 1960s
as the space age,
but it was also the age
of ocean exploration.
Iconic ocean explorer,
Jacques Cousteau,
was so passionate about
exploring the world's oceans
that he created a series
of underwater habitats
called Conshelf.
His structures allowed oceanauts
to live underwater for days
or even weeks at a time.
Cousteau's efforts
to colonize the ocean
laid the foundation for future
underwater living enthusiasts.
There were all kinds
of, uh, groups
building habitats.
There was a big push
to promote oil and gas.
There were subsea mining.
There was all kinds of thought
being placed into the idea
that these tremendous resources
that are found in our oceans
might be accessible to us.
The biggest obstacle to
getting into deep water is,
without question, the pressure.
[narrator] Even at sea level,
we're all under pressure.
Imagine a tiny column of air
stretching
from the top of your head
to the edge of space.
The weight of that air
is one atmosphere
about as heavy
as a bowling ball.
But drop the length of just
one bowling lane
beneath the surface
and that pressure trebles.
Two bowling lanes,
that's six full atmospheres
crushing down on you.
That pressure is adding up
at an enormous rate.
And it doesn't take long
before those pressures
become immense.
[narrator] Talk about pressure.
Before we start building
our Atlantis,
we need to understand how
too much pressure affects
the human body.
In 1873,
workers building
the submerged footings
of the Brooklyn Bridge
from inside wooden boxes
called caissons
recorded major problems
working under pressure,
an illness known as the bends.
We're putting
in these big caissons.
And when they came up,
we didn't know anything
about decompression
tables are coming up in,
you know, in stages.
They would be all crippled
and bent.
So, they called it the bends.
Different gases
have different effects
on the body at depth.
The nitrogen just starts
accumulating all the time.
The longer we're at depth,
the more nitrogen
gets in our blood.
If you were yanked straight up,
your blood would boil.
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator]
Thankfully, years later,
US Navy Physician George Bond
invented a revolutionary
technique,
one that would allow people
to safely explore the ocean
without suffering the bends.
[narrator] We're about to create
a brand new Atlantis,
a city under the sea.
But before we start building,
we need to figure out
how deep underwater can we build
and still ensure
that the residents
won't get sick.
The good news is
that scientists have been
exploring
the concept for decades.
In the early 1960s,
a US Navy physician
named George Bond
found a way to avoid the risks
of decompression sickness
through a new technique
called saturation diving.
[Shawn] Your gas intake at depth
just keeps saturating
your bloodstream
to a certain point,
then your gas is saturated.
So, once you're saturated,
you're only constrained
by physically
how much diving you can do
in that day.
[narrator]
Through his experiments,
Captain Bond determined
that divers
could not only go deep,
they could stay underwater
indefinitely,
as long as they had
the right setup.
Enter SEALAB,
an extreme experimental program
sponsored by the US Navy.
[L. Bruce] The US Navy was
really interested
in the physiology
of humans going underwater.
[narrator] Led by Capt. Bond,
SEALAB would determine
whether humans could live
and work underwater
for long periods of time.
For its first mission,
the plan
was to send four divers,
dubbed aquanauts,
200 feet below the ocean,
tethered to the surface
by umbilical cables
that provided
the electricity, air,
and a way to communicate.
For three weeks,
they would live and work
in a steel pod,
breathing in
a mixture of helium,
oxygen, and nitrogen.
Even though the mission
only lasted 11 days,
the operation
was considered a success.
And in 1965,
a new and improved SEALAB II
touched down on the ocean floor
at a depth of 203 feet
near La Jolla, California.
[man] On your station.
Aquanauts Carpenter and Eaton
have entered SEALAB II.
[narrator] SEALAB II contained
the comforts of home.
It had hot showers, heat,
working toilets, bigger windows,
and even a dolphin named Tuffy
trained to deliver supplies.
[Bruce]
I found them fascinating.
I grew up in the era of SEALAB.
I remember being so disappointed
when they discontinued
SEALAB III.
But, you know,
a fascinating story.
[narrator] After a successful
30 days underwater,
the program was pushed
even further.
And in 1969,
SEALAB III was lowered off
the coast
of San Clemente, California
nearly three times deeper
than SEALAB II
to a whopping 620 feet
below the surface.
But unlike its predecessors,
SEALAB III was plagued
with strange failures.
And before the mission
officially began,
four aquanauts
were sent down to fix
a carbon monoxide leak
on the unoccupied habitat.
After multiple attempts
to fix the issue,
aquanaut Berry Cannon
suddenly started convulsing.
Fellow diver, Robert Barth
tried desperately
to save him.
But the damage
had already been done.
Once Cannon was returned
to the surface,
he had already died
from asphyxiation.
Soon after the tragedy,
the Navy shut down the program.
[L. Bruce]
It was predicted that,
you know, within a few years,
there'd be subsea cities,
people would be living
underwater.
Here we are 60 years later
and none of that has happened.
[narrator]
But even though SEALAB ended
nearly half a century ago,
the program still has
a lasting impact
on deep ocean exploration.
Since the program ended,
over 70 subsea habitats
have been built
for scientific research.
And two are still
in operation today.
One of those facilities
is located
five and a half miles
off Key Largo
in the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary.
Aquarius Reef Base
has been in operation
for over 20 years,
surviving Mother Nature,
ownership changes,
and budget cuts.
Located 60 feet
below the surface,
scientists and researchers
can spend up to 10 days
running experiments
and living on the reef.
It's also the ultimate
experience for divers
who wanna spend long amounts
of time in the water
since Aquarius
allows saturation diving.
Dives from the habitat can last
for up to nine hours at a time
whereas surface dives
can only last for 90 minutes.
But Aquarius is still utilizing
1960s steel tube technology.
And it looks more
of like a submarine
than a subsea city.
We've got a much bigger vision.
So, now that we know
how deep we can go,
how big can we build
our marine city?
And if we're looking to build
with something
other than steel,
what material can we build with
that won't buckle
under the pressure?
We're building
a brand new Atlantis,
a sequel to Plato's Lost City.
But this time,
it's supposed
to be under the sea.
Scientists have worked
on this sci-fi idea
for 60 years.
And the problems
just keep piling up.
For one thing,
the pressure is crushing,
buoyancy makes it hard
to get down deep,
and life underwater
has turned out
to be uncomfortable,
and sometimes even deadly.
People I think realized that
the practical reality
of it was, uh,
was probably not achievable.
[narrator] Still for some,
the desire to live underwater
is irresistible.
Everyone can imagine the dream,
an aqua dome big enough
to fit an entire community
with clear views
of the ocean world,
and access to all its riches
and wonders.
But first,
we need to find a material
tough enough
to build our aquadome.
[Jarl] Underwater,
you have the weight
of all the water above you
trying to crush you
at all times.
Subsea habitats in the past
were built with steel.
It's strong
and easy to work with.
But you can't see through it.
One modern plastic
could hold the key.
[Patrick] One of the things
about acrylic,
not only is it transparent
so you can see through it,
it has the refractive index
of water.
So it's almost like
the acrylic vanishes.
There's this sensation
of suddenly...
having nothing around you.
In 2005,
the Conrad Maldives
luxury resort
opened the doors to Ithaa,
the world's first
undersea restaurant,
built almost entirely
of crystal clear acrylic.
The restaurant's
five-inch thick acrylic arch
allows guests to dine
in complete comfort
15 feet below the surface.
[Paul] Or you can do
a lot of things with acrylic
that you can never think
of doing with glass.
You can form it
into a unique shape,
you can go a lot thicker
than you can with glass,
uh, we're about half
the weight of glass,
and we're about 10 times
the, uh, impact resistance.
[narrator] With all that
and underwater views
in every direction,
acrylic sounds like
the best option.
But how deep can acrylic go?
If it collapsed, it would have
catastrophic consequences
like, you know,
everybody inside the structure
would be...
Would be killed.
[narrator] Patrick Lahey
is Bruce's right-hand man
at Triton Submarines.
He knows how to get
to the bottom of things
with acrylic.
[Patrick] The Triton 3300/3
which is really
our most venerable model,
we built nine of them.
We're just about to start
number ten.
And this is the sub
that carries three people
in a completely transparent
acrylic sphere,
uh, that dives to 3,300 feet.
[narrator] At 3,300 feet,
the weight of water
compressing this sub
is equivalent to 35 elephants
stacked on top of each other.
But the six and a half inch
thick acrylic hull
thrives under
the intense pressure.
Inflating our dome
up to city size however
might cause a problem.
We wanna ensure our dome
can hold a huge population.
So, how should we build our dome
to fit our needs?
[Patrick] So if you were
to build a structure
the size of, say a football
or a baseball stadium
at the bottom of the ocean,
the thickness of the material
that would be protecting
the people inside that structure
would have to be about
65 feet thick
not only, you know,
would it be cost-prohibitive,
it would be ridiculously heavy
and ridiculously complicated
to manufacture
and completely impractical.
And not to mention, you know,
if you built this big structure
and you have people sort of
standing on centerfield,
if you will, you're so far away
from the things
that you actually wanna see.
You'd have to be able
to somehow get yourself
to the top of that dome
to be able to look out of it
and see anything
because then you'd have
65 feet of thickness.
I'm not sure
what the visual experience
would be like,
but I imagine
it wouldn't be great.
[narrator] Although it seemed
like a pretty good idea
at the time,
a massive deep water dome
actually sounds
like a terrible idea.
The other thing to consider is
it's a part of our ocean
that's completely devoid
of any light
so you'd have to bring in
the light.
[narrator]
The top layer of the ocean
where sunlight can penetrate
is called the euphotic zone.
It only reaches about 650 feet
and the most beautiful
coral reefs
don't grow much deeper
than 65 feet.
The corals attract
the colorful fish
that in turn attract
the bigger predators.
If we want our new Atlantis
to be an epic
underwater experience,
we've got to be somewhere
with an epic view.
But even in shallow water,
a big dome
might not be the best plan.
[Patrick]
What you really wanna do
is get your eyes
close to the inner surface
of that material,
so that you can directly see
the things
that are on the other side
of it.
[Bruce] I think that
you could build a big dome,
but you're talking about
billions of dollars
if you were gonna do
that sort of thing
and it just doesn't make sense.
Smaller structures
are more cost-effective
and far more practical.
[narrator] It seems
that building several
smaller shallow-water domes
is the way to go.
But how will we do it
and who is going to build it?
[narrator] We're going
to build a modern-day city
under the sea
called Aquadome Atlantis.
Our design experts said
we should opt
for several smaller domes
made out of acrylic.
Our new plan is to build
in shallower waters
just 65 feet deep
where there's less pressure
and a lot more to see.
And we'll build
more like a moon base
with many smaller
interconnected acrylic domes.
But what will our domes
actually look like?
To answer that,
we need to flip our plan
upside down.
The best examples
of underwater domes
on the planet today
are actually on land
inside aquariums.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Check out
this completely acrylic
dolphin dome
at the Indianapolis Zoo.
[Paul] The dolphin room
has five foot of water
over the top of it
and it's five inches thick,
thirty feet in diameter,
about eleven feet tall.
So it's this dome room
that has a couple tunnels
that come into it
and the public come in,
they walk around,
they get a completely
immersed view of the dolphins
within the tank.
It's an incredible experience.
[narrator] Paul Gardner
is the VP of engineering
at Reynolds Polymer
Technology in Colorado.
They built the dolphin dome
and for over 30 years,
they've been using acrylic
to create the impossible.
[Paul]
Reynolds Polymer Technology
would be known for taking stuff
that nobody has ever thought
of doing before
and pushing the envelopes
to something
that can actually be engineered
and actually built.
[narrator] All right then, Paul,
using the Indianapolis Dome
as a practical example,
how about building us
20 dolphin domes
all interconnected
at 65 feet below the surface?
Think they could handle
the pressure?
[Paul] It's completely possible.
If from a thickness standpoint,
you're probably looking at
for the dome room itself
somewhere between 10
to 15 inches thick.
So, obviously then
you're gonna wanna have
some way to connect
those dorm rooms together.
So one way to do that would be
with some clear tunnels, right?
And we can manufacture
those tunnels.
You'd probably be looking
at a thickness
somewhere between seven
to ten inches
depending on geometry
and what they end up
looking like.
[suspenseful music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] On the design front,
it looks like
we're finally good to go
and the best part
of this new plan is,
just like Phil's Vent-Base Alpha
and Bruce's Poseidon
Undersea Resort,
we can sidestep SEALAB'S
increased pressure
problems altogether.
Now, we need to figure out
how will we transport our guests
from land to ocean
without getting them wet?
[Bruce] These structures
would be one atmosphere.
So you're just like sitting
in your living room.
[Phil] The idea is that,
you're never exposed
to pressure.
[narrator] Rather than diving
to Aquadome Atlantis,
residents will just walk
to the end of a long pier
and take a short
elevator ride down.
Atlanteans can come and go
topside
as they please.
And if they wanna dive,
we got a plan for that, too.
One dome will be separated
from the others
with an airlock and inside,
it will be ambient pressure
the same as the water outside.
Divers can exit
through a hole in the floor
called a moon pool.
When they return,
they'll step
into a decompression chamber
for a few minutes,
then step back into the habitat.
So now we're wondering,
how do we ensure
our new Atlantis
will be worth the investment?
These days, you know,
unless it pays,
it doesn't get done.
[narrator]
If we want our project
to see the light of day,
we need a business plan.
So what if we follow
Bruce's lead?
Instead of building
a subsea city,
let's make it a luxury resort.
[Bruce] It's a very
profitable operation.
I mean, basically you're looking
at about a hundred
and thirty million a year
in revenue,
and about 55 million in profit
before taxes and depreciation.
[Patrick] For me, the idea
of being able to spend
more time underwater,
look out the window,
and be looking at a reef
instead of looking
at a forest or a mountain,
that would definitely appeal
to me.
[narrator] With six million
active scuba divers worldwide
and twenty million
snorkeling enthusiasts,
the business
of seeing beneath the waves
brings in billions every year.
But keeping
a vacation resort full
all year round
all boils down to one thing,
location.
We're imagining a 21st century
state-of-the-art
undersea resort.
Our very own Aquadome Atlantis
will be laid out
as 20 interconnected domes
with the pinnacle of luxury
accommodations inside.
So now we need to figure out,
where are we gonna build it?
[Bruce] You wanna put
the resort somewhere
that is totally stable and safe.
[wind blowing]
[narrator] The Caribbean
has the highest concentration
of top dive sites in the world,
but around here,
hurricane season hits hard.
This map tracks the path
of every major storm
to hit the Caribbean
in the past 150 years.
If Plato's Atlantis
taught us anything,
it's that we should
probably steer clear
of natural disasters.
But take a closer look
at the island of Bonaire.
It sits just outside
Hurricane Alley.
And in 1979,
the island's entire coastline
was designated
a marine sanctuary.
So the coral reefs here
are teeming with life.
Our new Aquadome Atlantis
Underwater Resort
finally has a place
to call home.
Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
First, we'll place
a custom order
for 20 underwater domes
with 15-inch thick
acrylic walls.
And we'll need 400 feet
of acrylic tunnels
to connect them all together.
Just casting and polishing
that much acrylic
could take more than a year
and hundreds of workers.
How much is that gonna cost?
You're looking probably
in the range
of maybe fifty-two,
maybe a hundred and
twenty-five million dollars
from an acrylic standpoint
just for the product.
[narrator]
Not cheap, but remember,
we need a material
that's tough enough
to withstand the pressure.
Next, we'll ship
all those acrylic pieces
to a dry dock in South Florida.
And another 100 workers
will spend the next 18 months
assembling the entire resort
on land.
After we get it all assembled,
then a heavy lift ship
will come in
and transport the resort
for about 2.7 million dollars
to where the resort
is supposed to be stationed.
[narrator]
While Aquadome Atlantis
is on its way Bonaire,
we'll drive sturdy steel pilings
into the seafloor,
65 feet beneath the surface.
[Bruce] And so you'll hook up
the resort to the piling,
then you ballast the resort
down to the bottom
and then you bolt it in
about three feet
above the sea floor
so it doesn't interfere
with the seafloor at all.
[narrator] The final step
will be hooking up
all the vitals for our resort
like electricity,
fresh water, sewage,
and of course air
which will all run through
umbilicals
a short distance back to shore.
[Paul] The typical
installation costs
could be somewhere
in the 20% to 30%
of the acrylic price.
[narrator] We did it,
a brand-new Aquadome Atlantis,
as legendary
as Plato's mighty city.
We designed it like a moon base
with 20 interconnected
acrylic domes.
Inside those domes
are 32 hotel suites,
a restaurant, spa,
fitness center,
and of course a diving dome
that's open to the sea
so guests can explore
whenever they want.
It took six hundred people
and three years to build.
As for the price tag,
$200 million.
Now, there's just
one final snag.
Does this mega plan
actually make financial sense?
[Geoff] The genius
of Aquadome Atlantis
is you are building
attraction that people
are going to want to see
and one of the great things
that we do in this industry
as we look at benchmarks.
It's also about
generating revenue
from the people that want
to come and have dinner
at Aquadome Atlantis.
[narrator] According to Geoff,
another benchmark
we need to look at
is submarine tours
where we could charge people
for the chance to see
and experience Atlantis
from the outside.
Gotta remember,
it's not just $150
to go on the submarine ride.
You also want
a picture afterwards
and then maybe we want
to have a really cool
immersive theater
for them that traces
the original destruction
of Atlantis.
So you have the anchor
of a much bigger attraction.
[narrator] Nearly all life
in the entire known universe
is waiting to be discovered
just off our shores.
And a real Aqua Dome Atlantis
could enable regular people
to go down and find it
if we built it today.
[narrator] Atlantis,
the lost Utopian civilization
that sank beneath the ocean.
For more than 2,000 years,
explorers have searched
for any trace
of the island's existence.
But for the most part,
the legend of Atlantis
only exists
in our imaginations.
So now, we're curious,
what if we used modern
engineering
to build our own Atlantis?
I just think
it's an incredible shame
that is hasn't been done.
Well, we have the technology.
[man] Well,
I think it's possible
to build a city underwater
but, why?
[man] Underwater?
You have the weight
of all the water above you
trying to crash you
at all times.
[narrator] An underwater city
might sound
like science fiction,
but as our planet evolves
and populations grow,
finding viable solutions
for housing,
resources, and energy
is more important than ever.
But how would we go about it?
Here's the plan,
we're drawing inspiration
from today's top innovators
and utilizing
the latest technology
to create an out of this world
21st century Atlantis.
[Phil] No one's ever done this,
so this is what makes it
so exciting.
If you were yanked straight up,
your blood would boil.
[narrator] Now, we're wondering
how long would it take?
How much would it cost?
How many workers would we need?
Could we even do it
if we built it today?
[tense music playing]
[narrator]
The lost city of Atlantis
has been an object
of fascination
for over two millennia.
According to ancient Greek
Philosopher Plato,
Atlantis was
a mythical island nation
that existed nearly
9,000 years before his time.
Its founders, both gods
and humans created
a Utopian civilization,
it's an habitants were moral
and highly advanced.
But soon, the founder's vision
came crashing down
and the island's residents
became greedy
and morally corrupt.
Plato references
the cautionary tale
in two of his dialogues,
Timaeus and Critias.
And this is an old Greek
trope, right?
The moment that you become
too big for your breaches,
you'll be struck down
by the thunderbolt of Zeus.
[narrator] Plato's description
of the island itself was brief
yet mysteriously detailed.
Measuring the city
and island in Greek stadia
or stadium lengths.
Atlantis is
just absolutely sprawling.
[tense music]
[Eli] There's a sort of
island in the center
with concentric circles
around it.
Three water rings
and two land rings
with very elaborate descriptions
of a series of canals
and of bridges.
[narrator] Despite his lengthy
philosophical account,
Plato's texts never
specifically describe
a city under the sea.
Well, except for the part
where he mentions
the island's cataclysmic demise.
Plato writes "Sometime later",
excessively violent
earthquakes and floods occurred,
and after the onset
of an unbearable day
and a night...
your entire warrior force
sank below the earth all at once
and the isle of Atlantis
sank below the sea
"and disappeared."
[narrator] Even after years
of research,
Atlantis's existence
has never been confirmed.
Still, many people
have dedicated their lives
to trying to find the island
and some have even written
books about it.
During the renaissance,
Francis Bacon wrote,
New Atlantis.
And Thomas More wrote, "Utopia"
which both expanded
on the vision of Atlantis
as a paradise by the sea.
Then in 1882,
Ignatius L. Donnelly
published his infamous book
Atlantis,
The Antediluvian World,
which recounted Plato's
description of Atlantis
as fact,
suggesting that all known
ancient civilizations
were descendants
from the lost world.
Many of his theories
are the source of our modern
Atlantis beliefs,
like, the idea
that some Atlanteans
survived the flood
and spread their advanced wisdom
as they populated
the rest of the world.
That city of Atlantis basically
becomes the origin
of all civilization.
[narrator] Today,
thanks to special effects
and the magic of Hollywood,
we've got new glimpses
of what a city
under the sea could look like.
But now, we're taking it
one step further.
Armed with the latest technology
and modern engineering,
we're building
a reimagined Atlantis.
But, how are we gonna do it?
First, we'll need to find
some present day inspiration.
Luckily for us,
offshore engineering
isn't a new concept.
At some point, I believe
that we may go back to the ocean
where we started from.
[narrator] Phil Nuytten
has been creating
and designing deep water
diving equipment
for over 40 years.
His inventions,
the Newtsuit and the Exosuit
have revolutionized the industry
allowing divers
to operate safely
and comfortably underwater
at depths of nearly 1,000 feet.
Now, Phil's working
on a new project
that could help
make our Atlantis
a reality.
The whole plan is the thing
called Vent-Base Alpha.
People hear that Vent-Base
and they say,
"Well, so what,
like a Mars Colony?"
I say, "Yeah. Like a Mars colony"
but at the bottom of the sea."
[narrator] Phil's plan
for his underwater colony,
Vent-Base Alpha,
is to install it
next to a hydrothermal vent,
a kind of underwater geyser.
Sounds like
a pretty big undertaking.
So how is he gonna make
this massive project
financially viable?
[Phil] You do it by building it
right in the middle
of the heat vent field,
that's the black smokers
you see on TV.
Some of the more prolific
smokers here
are spewing out
pure, unadulterated cobalt
which is a semi-precious metal.
Vent-Base Alpha
is the one atmosphere,
uh, colony under the sea
where we use the suits
to go out and work.
So, you could stay down there
for generations.
I have this thought
in my mind that
someday when this is built
and I'm long gone,
some kid will be sitting
on his dad's knee
saying, "Dad, is it true
that there used to be
people up there?"
[narrator] An underwater society
that could fund itself
indefinitely
just by utilizing
the natural resources around it.
What an idea.
And Phil's not the only one
with a passion
for underwater technology.
L. Bruce Jones is the CEO
and co-founder
of Triton Submersibles.
His company designs
and expertly engineers
deep diving vessels.
More recently,
Bruce is spearheading
the development
of the world's first
underwater luxury resort.
[L. Bruce]
The concept came about
because we figured the only way
we could get a permanent
subsea human habitation built
was if it were profitable.
And we want this
to be a seven-star resort.
I mean, absolutely
massive acrylic viewport sub,
we've got a hundred seat
underwater bar and restaurant,
you know, twenty-five
undersea suites.
We've got an undersea library,
we've got a conference room,
and a wedding chapel,
so if you wanna come down
and get married,
you can do that.
[narrator] Bruce plans to
build his underwater resort
just offshore
from the tiny Fijian island
of Katafanga.
[L. Bruce] A maximum depth
of the lagoon
is about 90 feet
and we will be putting
the resort
in about 50 feet of water.
No one has
ever successfully built
an underwater resort.
All we need to do
is get our act together
and make it happen.
[narrator] And what better
way to get away from it all
than to go somewhere
no one else has ever been.
A luxurious underwater resort
sounds like
the ultimate experience.
Either of these master plans
would be the boldest
and most expensive undersea
habitats ever built.
But is now the right time
to build a city
under the sea?
[narrator] We're combining
modern engineering
and cutting edge technology
to create our own
modern-day Atlantis.
For inspiration,
we're following the leads
of deep sea innovators,
Phil Nuytten and Bruce Jones,
who've already
laid the groundwork
for burgeoning
marine technologies.
[Phil] No one's ever done this
so this is what makes it
so exciting.
[narrator]
But not everyone thinks
building
an underwater metropolis
is such a great idea.
[Brian] Well,
I think it's possible
to build a city underwater,
but, why?
[tense music playing]
I don't see what
possible problem you're solving
by going underwater in a city.
Not only, you know,
would it be cost prohibitive,
it would be ridiculously
complicated to manufacture
and completely impractical.
[narrator] It's true,
building a city underwater
sounds ambitious,
but as the world's
population grows
and our planet's
environment evolves,
it may be time to consider
just how practical
undersea living could become.
Could living underwater be
a possible solution
for humanity
in the distant future?
We live on a blue planet,
the Earth part,
even the continents,
are really just islands
in a global sea.
It should've been called
Planet Ocean.
[narrator]
Oceans cover about 71%
of the Earth's surface.
By volume, they make up 99%
of the living space
on the only planet
in our universe
known to support life.
It's estimated
that over 90% of the species
in the ocean
have yet to be classified
and 95% of the ocean itself
has yet to be explored.
This could be prime real estate
for future generations.
Not to mention,
a deep sea city
could give scientists
a better understanding
of the planet
and the evolution of life
on Earth.
[Patrick] I happen to love
the planet I live on
so to me, the idea
of investing time and energy
in the development
of technologies
that will allow us to learn
more about the oceans
is something
that's more interesting,
more appealing,
and ultimately,
I think far more rewarding.
[tense music playing]
[narrator] So here's our plan.
We want our Atlantis
to be the domed
underwater city
of science fiction fantasy,
a massive subsea habitat
that will support human life
and be the ultimate getaway,
and gateway back to the sea.
We'll call it Aquadome Atlantis.
But first things first,
building underwater does pose
its fair share of challenges.
The cold temperature,
lack of oxygen,
and the depth of our structure
are all important factors
we need to consider.
[L. Bruce] When you get deeper,
it gets to be very complicated
and potentially very dangerous.
[narrator] For some,
just dunking
your head underwater
is enough to make your ears pop
from the increased pressure.
It's because,
water is a lot heavier than air.
And the weight of water
at the ocean's deepest point
nearly seven miles straight down
is equivalent
to fifty jumbo jets
piled on top of your head.
And it doesn't take long
before those pressures
become absolutely an impediment
to building these structures
that conceivably people
could live in.
[narrator] Then there's
the problem of buoyancy.
Ever tried to submerge
a beach ball?
Now, imagine a beach ball
the size of your town.
[Jarl] It's actually
5.7 trillion pounds buoyant.
So, there's another
engineering challenge.
[narrator]
Now, we need to consider
what super strong material
can we build our dome with
to keep the water at bay,
how big can we build it
and how much pressure
can this plan take
before it breaks?
Doing anything
anywhere underwater
is far more complicated
than it would be on dry land.
Time and labor
could sink any budget.
And we certainly don't want
to take any shortcuts.
This is a very expensive project
that you can imagine.
[L. Bruce] These days,
you know, unless it pays,
it doesn't get done.
[narrator]
And if building underwater
wasn't hard enough,
how will we convince people
to move in?
One thing we know for sure,
people have been fascinated
by the concept
of living underwater
since the beginning
of the 20th century.
We think of the 1960s
as the space age,
but it was also the age
of ocean exploration.
Iconic ocean explorer,
Jacques Cousteau,
was so passionate about
exploring the world's oceans
that he created a series
of underwater habitats
called Conshelf.
His structures allowed oceanauts
to live underwater for days
or even weeks at a time.
Cousteau's efforts
to colonize the ocean
laid the foundation for future
underwater living enthusiasts.
There were all kinds
of, uh, groups
building habitats.
There was a big push
to promote oil and gas.
There were subsea mining.
There was all kinds of thought
being placed into the idea
that these tremendous resources
that are found in our oceans
might be accessible to us.
The biggest obstacle to
getting into deep water is,
without question, the pressure.
[narrator] Even at sea level,
we're all under pressure.
Imagine a tiny column of air
stretching
from the top of your head
to the edge of space.
The weight of that air
is one atmosphere
about as heavy
as a bowling ball.
But drop the length of just
one bowling lane
beneath the surface
and that pressure trebles.
Two bowling lanes,
that's six full atmospheres
crushing down on you.
That pressure is adding up
at an enormous rate.
And it doesn't take long
before those pressures
become immense.
[narrator] Talk about pressure.
Before we start building
our Atlantis,
we need to understand how
too much pressure affects
the human body.
In 1873,
workers building
the submerged footings
of the Brooklyn Bridge
from inside wooden boxes
called caissons
recorded major problems
working under pressure,
an illness known as the bends.
We're putting
in these big caissons.
And when they came up,
we didn't know anything
about decompression
tables are coming up in,
you know, in stages.
They would be all crippled
and bent.
So, they called it the bends.
Different gases
have different effects
on the body at depth.
The nitrogen just starts
accumulating all the time.
The longer we're at depth,
the more nitrogen
gets in our blood.
If you were yanked straight up,
your blood would boil.
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator]
Thankfully, years later,
US Navy Physician George Bond
invented a revolutionary
technique,
one that would allow people
to safely explore the ocean
without suffering the bends.
[narrator] We're about to create
a brand new Atlantis,
a city under the sea.
But before we start building,
we need to figure out
how deep underwater can we build
and still ensure
that the residents
won't get sick.
The good news is
that scientists have been
exploring
the concept for decades.
In the early 1960s,
a US Navy physician
named George Bond
found a way to avoid the risks
of decompression sickness
through a new technique
called saturation diving.
[Shawn] Your gas intake at depth
just keeps saturating
your bloodstream
to a certain point,
then your gas is saturated.
So, once you're saturated,
you're only constrained
by physically
how much diving you can do
in that day.
[narrator]
Through his experiments,
Captain Bond determined
that divers
could not only go deep,
they could stay underwater
indefinitely,
as long as they had
the right setup.
Enter SEALAB,
an extreme experimental program
sponsored by the US Navy.
[L. Bruce] The US Navy was
really interested
in the physiology
of humans going underwater.
[narrator] Led by Capt. Bond,
SEALAB would determine
whether humans could live
and work underwater
for long periods of time.
For its first mission,
the plan
was to send four divers,
dubbed aquanauts,
200 feet below the ocean,
tethered to the surface
by umbilical cables
that provided
the electricity, air,
and a way to communicate.
For three weeks,
they would live and work
in a steel pod,
breathing in
a mixture of helium,
oxygen, and nitrogen.
Even though the mission
only lasted 11 days,
the operation
was considered a success.
And in 1965,
a new and improved SEALAB II
touched down on the ocean floor
at a depth of 203 feet
near La Jolla, California.
[man] On your station.
Aquanauts Carpenter and Eaton
have entered SEALAB II.
[narrator] SEALAB II contained
the comforts of home.
It had hot showers, heat,
working toilets, bigger windows,
and even a dolphin named Tuffy
trained to deliver supplies.
[Bruce]
I found them fascinating.
I grew up in the era of SEALAB.
I remember being so disappointed
when they discontinued
SEALAB III.
But, you know,
a fascinating story.
[narrator] After a successful
30 days underwater,
the program was pushed
even further.
And in 1969,
SEALAB III was lowered off
the coast
of San Clemente, California
nearly three times deeper
than SEALAB II
to a whopping 620 feet
below the surface.
But unlike its predecessors,
SEALAB III was plagued
with strange failures.
And before the mission
officially began,
four aquanauts
were sent down to fix
a carbon monoxide leak
on the unoccupied habitat.
After multiple attempts
to fix the issue,
aquanaut Berry Cannon
suddenly started convulsing.
Fellow diver, Robert Barth
tried desperately
to save him.
But the damage
had already been done.
Once Cannon was returned
to the surface,
he had already died
from asphyxiation.
Soon after the tragedy,
the Navy shut down the program.
[L. Bruce]
It was predicted that,
you know, within a few years,
there'd be subsea cities,
people would be living
underwater.
Here we are 60 years later
and none of that has happened.
[narrator]
But even though SEALAB ended
nearly half a century ago,
the program still has
a lasting impact
on deep ocean exploration.
Since the program ended,
over 70 subsea habitats
have been built
for scientific research.
And two are still
in operation today.
One of those facilities
is located
five and a half miles
off Key Largo
in the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary.
Aquarius Reef Base
has been in operation
for over 20 years,
surviving Mother Nature,
ownership changes,
and budget cuts.
Located 60 feet
below the surface,
scientists and researchers
can spend up to 10 days
running experiments
and living on the reef.
It's also the ultimate
experience for divers
who wanna spend long amounts
of time in the water
since Aquarius
allows saturation diving.
Dives from the habitat can last
for up to nine hours at a time
whereas surface dives
can only last for 90 minutes.
But Aquarius is still utilizing
1960s steel tube technology.
And it looks more
of like a submarine
than a subsea city.
We've got a much bigger vision.
So, now that we know
how deep we can go,
how big can we build
our marine city?
And if we're looking to build
with something
other than steel,
what material can we build with
that won't buckle
under the pressure?
We're building
a brand new Atlantis,
a sequel to Plato's Lost City.
But this time,
it's supposed
to be under the sea.
Scientists have worked
on this sci-fi idea
for 60 years.
And the problems
just keep piling up.
For one thing,
the pressure is crushing,
buoyancy makes it hard
to get down deep,
and life underwater
has turned out
to be uncomfortable,
and sometimes even deadly.
People I think realized that
the practical reality
of it was, uh,
was probably not achievable.
[narrator] Still for some,
the desire to live underwater
is irresistible.
Everyone can imagine the dream,
an aqua dome big enough
to fit an entire community
with clear views
of the ocean world,
and access to all its riches
and wonders.
But first,
we need to find a material
tough enough
to build our aquadome.
[Jarl] Underwater,
you have the weight
of all the water above you
trying to crush you
at all times.
Subsea habitats in the past
were built with steel.
It's strong
and easy to work with.
But you can't see through it.
One modern plastic
could hold the key.
[Patrick] One of the things
about acrylic,
not only is it transparent
so you can see through it,
it has the refractive index
of water.
So it's almost like
the acrylic vanishes.
There's this sensation
of suddenly...
having nothing around you.
In 2005,
the Conrad Maldives
luxury resort
opened the doors to Ithaa,
the world's first
undersea restaurant,
built almost entirely
of crystal clear acrylic.
The restaurant's
five-inch thick acrylic arch
allows guests to dine
in complete comfort
15 feet below the surface.
[Paul] Or you can do
a lot of things with acrylic
that you can never think
of doing with glass.
You can form it
into a unique shape,
you can go a lot thicker
than you can with glass,
uh, we're about half
the weight of glass,
and we're about 10 times
the, uh, impact resistance.
[narrator] With all that
and underwater views
in every direction,
acrylic sounds like
the best option.
But how deep can acrylic go?
If it collapsed, it would have
catastrophic consequences
like, you know,
everybody inside the structure
would be...
Would be killed.
[narrator] Patrick Lahey
is Bruce's right-hand man
at Triton Submarines.
He knows how to get
to the bottom of things
with acrylic.
[Patrick] The Triton 3300/3
which is really
our most venerable model,
we built nine of them.
We're just about to start
number ten.
And this is the sub
that carries three people
in a completely transparent
acrylic sphere,
uh, that dives to 3,300 feet.
[narrator] At 3,300 feet,
the weight of water
compressing this sub
is equivalent to 35 elephants
stacked on top of each other.
But the six and a half inch
thick acrylic hull
thrives under
the intense pressure.
Inflating our dome
up to city size however
might cause a problem.
We wanna ensure our dome
can hold a huge population.
So, how should we build our dome
to fit our needs?
[Patrick] So if you were
to build a structure
the size of, say a football
or a baseball stadium
at the bottom of the ocean,
the thickness of the material
that would be protecting
the people inside that structure
would have to be about
65 feet thick
not only, you know,
would it be cost-prohibitive,
it would be ridiculously heavy
and ridiculously complicated
to manufacture
and completely impractical.
And not to mention, you know,
if you built this big structure
and you have people sort of
standing on centerfield,
if you will, you're so far away
from the things
that you actually wanna see.
You'd have to be able
to somehow get yourself
to the top of that dome
to be able to look out of it
and see anything
because then you'd have
65 feet of thickness.
I'm not sure
what the visual experience
would be like,
but I imagine
it wouldn't be great.
[narrator] Although it seemed
like a pretty good idea
at the time,
a massive deep water dome
actually sounds
like a terrible idea.
The other thing to consider is
it's a part of our ocean
that's completely devoid
of any light
so you'd have to bring in
the light.
[narrator]
The top layer of the ocean
where sunlight can penetrate
is called the euphotic zone.
It only reaches about 650 feet
and the most beautiful
coral reefs
don't grow much deeper
than 65 feet.
The corals attract
the colorful fish
that in turn attract
the bigger predators.
If we want our new Atlantis
to be an epic
underwater experience,
we've got to be somewhere
with an epic view.
But even in shallow water,
a big dome
might not be the best plan.
[Patrick]
What you really wanna do
is get your eyes
close to the inner surface
of that material,
so that you can directly see
the things
that are on the other side
of it.
[Bruce] I think that
you could build a big dome,
but you're talking about
billions of dollars
if you were gonna do
that sort of thing
and it just doesn't make sense.
Smaller structures
are more cost-effective
and far more practical.
[narrator] It seems
that building several
smaller shallow-water domes
is the way to go.
But how will we do it
and who is going to build it?
[narrator] We're going
to build a modern-day city
under the sea
called Aquadome Atlantis.
Our design experts said
we should opt
for several smaller domes
made out of acrylic.
Our new plan is to build
in shallower waters
just 65 feet deep
where there's less pressure
and a lot more to see.
And we'll build
more like a moon base
with many smaller
interconnected acrylic domes.
But what will our domes
actually look like?
To answer that,
we need to flip our plan
upside down.
The best examples
of underwater domes
on the planet today
are actually on land
inside aquariums.
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] Check out
this completely acrylic
dolphin dome
at the Indianapolis Zoo.
[Paul] The dolphin room
has five foot of water
over the top of it
and it's five inches thick,
thirty feet in diameter,
about eleven feet tall.
So it's this dome room
that has a couple tunnels
that come into it
and the public come in,
they walk around,
they get a completely
immersed view of the dolphins
within the tank.
It's an incredible experience.
[narrator] Paul Gardner
is the VP of engineering
at Reynolds Polymer
Technology in Colorado.
They built the dolphin dome
and for over 30 years,
they've been using acrylic
to create the impossible.
[Paul]
Reynolds Polymer Technology
would be known for taking stuff
that nobody has ever thought
of doing before
and pushing the envelopes
to something
that can actually be engineered
and actually built.
[narrator] All right then, Paul,
using the Indianapolis Dome
as a practical example,
how about building us
20 dolphin domes
all interconnected
at 65 feet below the surface?
Think they could handle
the pressure?
[Paul] It's completely possible.
If from a thickness standpoint,
you're probably looking at
for the dome room itself
somewhere between 10
to 15 inches thick.
So, obviously then
you're gonna wanna have
some way to connect
those dorm rooms together.
So one way to do that would be
with some clear tunnels, right?
And we can manufacture
those tunnels.
You'd probably be looking
at a thickness
somewhere between seven
to ten inches
depending on geometry
and what they end up
looking like.
[suspenseful music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[narrator] On the design front,
it looks like
we're finally good to go
and the best part
of this new plan is,
just like Phil's Vent-Base Alpha
and Bruce's Poseidon
Undersea Resort,
we can sidestep SEALAB'S
increased pressure
problems altogether.
Now, we need to figure out
how will we transport our guests
from land to ocean
without getting them wet?
[Bruce] These structures
would be one atmosphere.
So you're just like sitting
in your living room.
[Phil] The idea is that,
you're never exposed
to pressure.
[narrator] Rather than diving
to Aquadome Atlantis,
residents will just walk
to the end of a long pier
and take a short
elevator ride down.
Atlanteans can come and go
topside
as they please.
And if they wanna dive,
we got a plan for that, too.
One dome will be separated
from the others
with an airlock and inside,
it will be ambient pressure
the same as the water outside.
Divers can exit
through a hole in the floor
called a moon pool.
When they return,
they'll step
into a decompression chamber
for a few minutes,
then step back into the habitat.
So now we're wondering,
how do we ensure
our new Atlantis
will be worth the investment?
These days, you know,
unless it pays,
it doesn't get done.
[narrator]
If we want our project
to see the light of day,
we need a business plan.
So what if we follow
Bruce's lead?
Instead of building
a subsea city,
let's make it a luxury resort.
[Bruce] It's a very
profitable operation.
I mean, basically you're looking
at about a hundred
and thirty million a year
in revenue,
and about 55 million in profit
before taxes and depreciation.
[Patrick] For me, the idea
of being able to spend
more time underwater,
look out the window,
and be looking at a reef
instead of looking
at a forest or a mountain,
that would definitely appeal
to me.
[narrator] With six million
active scuba divers worldwide
and twenty million
snorkeling enthusiasts,
the business
of seeing beneath the waves
brings in billions every year.
But keeping
a vacation resort full
all year round
all boils down to one thing,
location.
We're imagining a 21st century
state-of-the-art
undersea resort.
Our very own Aquadome Atlantis
will be laid out
as 20 interconnected domes
with the pinnacle of luxury
accommodations inside.
So now we need to figure out,
where are we gonna build it?
[Bruce] You wanna put
the resort somewhere
that is totally stable and safe.
[wind blowing]
[narrator] The Caribbean
has the highest concentration
of top dive sites in the world,
but around here,
hurricane season hits hard.
This map tracks the path
of every major storm
to hit the Caribbean
in the past 150 years.
If Plato's Atlantis
taught us anything,
it's that we should
probably steer clear
of natural disasters.
But take a closer look
at the island of Bonaire.
It sits just outside
Hurricane Alley.
And in 1979,
the island's entire coastline
was designated
a marine sanctuary.
So the coral reefs here
are teeming with life.
Our new Aquadome Atlantis
Underwater Resort
finally has a place
to call home.
Let's do it.
[upbeat music playing]
First, we'll place
a custom order
for 20 underwater domes
with 15-inch thick
acrylic walls.
And we'll need 400 feet
of acrylic tunnels
to connect them all together.
Just casting and polishing
that much acrylic
could take more than a year
and hundreds of workers.
How much is that gonna cost?
You're looking probably
in the range
of maybe fifty-two,
maybe a hundred and
twenty-five million dollars
from an acrylic standpoint
just for the product.
[narrator]
Not cheap, but remember,
we need a material
that's tough enough
to withstand the pressure.
Next, we'll ship
all those acrylic pieces
to a dry dock in South Florida.
And another 100 workers
will spend the next 18 months
assembling the entire resort
on land.
After we get it all assembled,
then a heavy lift ship
will come in
and transport the resort
for about 2.7 million dollars
to where the resort
is supposed to be stationed.
[narrator]
While Aquadome Atlantis
is on its way Bonaire,
we'll drive sturdy steel pilings
into the seafloor,
65 feet beneath the surface.
[Bruce] And so you'll hook up
the resort to the piling,
then you ballast the resort
down to the bottom
and then you bolt it in
about three feet
above the sea floor
so it doesn't interfere
with the seafloor at all.
[narrator] The final step
will be hooking up
all the vitals for our resort
like electricity,
fresh water, sewage,
and of course air
which will all run through
umbilicals
a short distance back to shore.
[Paul] The typical
installation costs
could be somewhere
in the 20% to 30%
of the acrylic price.
[narrator] We did it,
a brand-new Aquadome Atlantis,
as legendary
as Plato's mighty city.
We designed it like a moon base
with 20 interconnected
acrylic domes.
Inside those domes
are 32 hotel suites,
a restaurant, spa,
fitness center,
and of course a diving dome
that's open to the sea
so guests can explore
whenever they want.
It took six hundred people
and three years to build.
As for the price tag,
$200 million.
Now, there's just
one final snag.
Does this mega plan
actually make financial sense?
[Geoff] The genius
of Aquadome Atlantis
is you are building
attraction that people
are going to want to see
and one of the great things
that we do in this industry
as we look at benchmarks.
It's also about
generating revenue
from the people that want
to come and have dinner
at Aquadome Atlantis.
[narrator] According to Geoff,
another benchmark
we need to look at
is submarine tours
where we could charge people
for the chance to see
and experience Atlantis
from the outside.
Gotta remember,
it's not just $150
to go on the submarine ride.
You also want
a picture afterwards
and then maybe we want
to have a really cool
immersive theater
for them that traces
the original destruction
of Atlantis.
So you have the anchor
of a much bigger attraction.
[narrator] Nearly all life
in the entire known universe
is waiting to be discovered
just off our shores.
And a real Aqua Dome Atlantis
could enable regular people
to go down and find it
if we built it today.