Hull Fabrication
It was decided not to go with the usual cylindrical hull design, as it was decided we only wished to accomplish a maximum depth from which a man could safely escape from, this being 70m. Other consideration were then taken into account such as whether to make it a "one atmosphere" submarine or an "ambient sub". Although the submarine has the capability to be a "one atmosphere" submarine and dive on oxygen with O2 scrubbers, We are currently beginning our test dives using ambient pressure, and this means we use the same dive tables as a diver and have to surface in a slow controlled manor, to decompress and alleviate the danger of nitrogen build up in our bodies. What this means is the pressure inside the submarine is always equal to the pressure outside the submarine so that our hull configuration does not have to be tremendously strong to hold back the immense pressure of the sea. Therefore our hull is constructed from 6mm plate steel, ribbed at every right-angle and 12mm acrylic windows were used and 1inch thick aluminium hatches.