Technology Milestones in Ocean Space Utilization

A number of ambitious projects have been proposed for the design, development and construction of seabased floating or quasi-floating cities. These proposals have included concepts for production of energy, for station keeping and for transportation. In seperate development projects the technologies which are required for realization of these concepts have been developed. These include the development of super-stable platforms, semisubmerged platform ships, computer aided environmental positioning, the resolution of heat exchanger and pipe construction limitations in OTEC, the development of low cost underwater hulls and the utilization of organic materials etc; It is demonstrated that all of the major technologies are now in place and the realization of ocean space communities is now a function of planning economics, organiztion and national will.