Chapter 230: I won’t do it if the money is too little
If you ask divers what they fear most, it's not sharks or whales, but decompression sickness. Suffering from this condition is excruciating! It's fair to say it's a life worse than death. For example, Moreau's grandfather, Josh Castells, left the Cousteau diving team after contracting decompression sickness.
How to prevent and treat decompression sickness has always been a headache.
According to the diver's decompression rules, the longer a diver spends on the seabed, the slower he or she should ascend to minimize the risk of decompression sickness. Furthermore, after escaping, a period of time must be allowed before diving back into the sea.
If other divers were to dive up and down like Xiao Peng, they would have suffered from decompression sickness countless times.
It is precisely because of this that the efficiency of deep-sea diving work is extremely slow and the labor cost is very high.
However, a discovery made by an American doctor in the last century gave divers a new idea.
The doctor discovered that when humans stay under high pressure for a certain period of time, the dissolved gases in their blood tissues become saturated. In this state, as long as the pressure remains unchanged, the gas content in the blood will not increase no matter how long you stay under the sea. This means that you can stay under the same pressure for any length of time.
This means that if the problems of eating, drinking, defecating and urinating can be solved, a diver only needs to decompress once even if he stays on the seabed for a year!
It is impossible to stay on the seabed for a year, so humans came up with another way, which is the so-called "saturation diving".
Saturation diving involves placing divers in a hyperbaric chamber to familiarize them with the pressure of the operating waters. For example, if the operating waters are 300 meters, the chamber pressure is set to that of the seabed at 300 meters. Divers are then allowed to acclimate to the pressure for 40 hours.
The air they breathe during these 40 hours is also different from the air they normally breathe. Normally, humans breathe a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen, but nitrogen can cause unconsciousness when it enters the bloodstream, a condition known as "nitrogen narcosis." Therefore, divers breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen in the pressure chamber.
After the body adapts to the pressure, the crew can go directly to the seabed through the diving chamber to work for a long time. Generally speaking, after working continuously on the seabed for five or six hours, they return to the hyperbaric chamber to live until the work is completed. After a long period of decompression, they can leave the hyperbaric chamber and resume normal life.
Decompression time is even longer than pressurization time. On average, one day of decompression time is required for every thirty meters of depth, and one more day is required before leaving the chamber. If you saturation dive at a depth of three hundred meters, it will take eleven days just for decompression!
Theoretically, as long as divers can get used to the pressure in the hyperbaric chamber, they can work on the seabed for a few years without any problems.
Of course, this is theoretical data.
High-pressure life has a huge impact on the physical health of divers. It is no exaggeration to say that under high-pressure life, even a fart may cause intestinal damage. Therefore, according to international practice, the longest continuous working time for saturation divers is 28 days, which also includes the time for pressurization and decompression.
Xiao Peng had originally thought about taking the saturation diving qualification exam. After all, this thing is so profitable, and the salary starts at 1,000 Euros a day!
But in the end he gave up the idea of learning saturation diving: first of all, it was too expensive and he didn't have enough money to pay for the tuition. In addition, saturation diving required too much physical effort and Xiao Peng's physical condition at the time might not be able to withstand it.
Now I think I'm glad I didn't learn it. Look at me now! An 'exosuit' is like a small submarine that allows you to ascend quickly without worrying about decompression sickness. And since I've gained superpowers, I'm not afraid of decompression sickness anymore!
The DSV Fabian mentioned is actually a diving support vessel. The term "DSV" doesn't refer to a vessel that transports divers to their work area, but rather a vessel dedicated to saturation diving. Almost all the staff and facilities on board are dedicated to saturation divers.
The onboard equipment includes pressure chambers, cranes, and diving bells, while the crew includes technicians and medical personnel. The saturation divers' every move is monitored by these technicians, including their meals and restroom times, which are meticulously recorded. Even flushing the toilet is controlled remotely.
This is for the health of the saturation diver. The pressure on the human body in a high-pressure environment is too great. If you are not careful, your life may be in danger.
This is also one of the reasons why Xiao Peng did not learn saturation diving back then.
It’s too dangerous!
Spain contacted France through DSV, which naturally means that they sent saturation divers to work underwater.
It is understandable that they do not have DSV themselves. There are no more than a handful of countries in the world that have DSV and mastered saturation diving technology. Moreover, the cost is too high. For example, the "heated pressure-resistant deep diving suit" that divers wear when working on the seabed costs six figures each, also in Euros.
This type of diving suit is not only high-pressure resistant, but also needs to be constantly heated to maintain the diver's body temperature, as the temperature in the deep sea is extremely low. And in the hyperbaric chamber, the temperature can reach nearly 40 degrees Celsius. Is it possible to cope with this high and low temperature without medical supervision?
If DSV goes overseas, the daily operating costs will start at 100,000 euros.
All in all, this is not a job that an ordinary person can do!
But Xiao Peng was puzzled. "Fabian, why did the Spanish send divers down there? Couldn't they just pull the submarine up? Wouldn't saturation diving be necessary for this kind of work?"
Fabian said, "I've asked Fernandez the same question. The submarine needs to be salvaged, but neither Spain nor France has the capability, so they need to contact Titan for salvage."
"Then let Titan salvage it!" Xiao Peng said with disdain, "Two countries this big can't salvage a submarine, what can I say about you!"
Fabian ignored Xiao Peng's sarcasm and continued, "But the submarine is carrying highly confidential equipment like encrypted radio communication systems, communication codes, and decoders. If Titan were to salvage it, and if anything were to leak out, it could lead to the leakage of NATO's entire confidentiality system. So they have to dismantle these devices before Titan can salvage it."
Hearing this, Xiao Peng suddenly understood, but he was confused: "Then why did they come to me? They have already hired saturation divers. It's been over a month, they should have dismantled the equipment by now, right?"
Fabian spread his hands. "The problem is they don't have it. This is beyond the capabilities of the French saturation divers. I heard that several plans were developed, but all ended in failure. Now we should enter the second phase of the submarine project. That's why Patachi found us again, wanting to see if we have any solution!"
"How much?" Xiao Peng asked the key question.
"One million!" Pascal raised a finger.
After hearing this, Xiao Peng shook his head without even thinking: "No!"
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