Press the Space bar for next slide These are schematics for a concept I came up with which I have dubbed a Thermal Ballast Bag.
@Catzcute4 for help in the design. Here is a summary of what it does, and why it is better than a ballast tank: Ballast tanks work by being filled with water in order to sink, and emptied in order to float. This becomes a problem at deep depths in the ocean, however, as if the tank is emptied, it can easily be crushed, and pumping water in and out at such depths requires substantial amounts of energy. This is meant to overcome said problem. Instead of using water to sink and air to float, it uses cooled liquid methanol (cooled using conduction) to sink, and warmed methanol to float. It warms the methanol with use of microwave radiation (emitted by a magnetron), and silver foil to keep it inside, with an outer layer of rubber to contain the heat. If someone wants to re-cool it, they can use an alternating lead/silver wall (lead for absorbing the microwaves, and silver for reflecting them), as well as induction with copper wires in order to remove the heat.
