Explore the core seasteading requirements: Structure (not sinking), Autonomy (getting left alone), and Infrastructure (having light, heat, food, etc.). When current solutions are sufficient for our needs, learn them. When they aren't, invent new ones. Secondarily, advance seasteading technologies through grant-funded research and partnerships.
We've divided the research necessary for our mission into two types: Core and Supplemental.
Core research is so innovative that it has not yet been done by anyone else, and so necessary and important that the Seastead Institute will directly fund and undertake it. The main areas are:
As our research program gets underway, we'll be blogging about it and posting results (graphs, pictures, videos...) here and in the TSI Reseach Forum.
Supplemental research is for things where reasonable solutions already exist, or which we can live without.
For example, there are tons of ways to generate power on the ocean, like diesel generators, solar photocells, wind turbines, and wave power, just to name a few. We know that, if necessary, we can simply purchase a diesel generator and import diesel to get power at a decent price. There are problems with this solution - it requires fuel resupply - but it's a workable way to get electricity Thus while power generation is critical to our success, it is ultimately a supplemental research topic. So while we'd love to research offshore wave power systems (honestly, that's our idea of a good time!), at this point we cannot spend our limited resources on these supplemental topics.
One option for getting better solutions is grant-based research - there are enough topics related to our mission that we should be able to find grants to support some of it.
The other is for you to help. Our Distributed Research Program (still being designed) is designed to harness the knowledge, skills, and creativity of our community of seasteading enthusiasts. If experimenting with new ways to deliver the requirements of a modern civilization on the ocean, and optimizing existing technologies for permanent ocean communities sounds like fun, go check it out. To make things easier, we are starting out w/ a Weekly Research Program, mainly consisting of web research. It will eventually spin off some physical research projects.
If you have questions, comments, or want to give us a grant to do fun research related to establishing permanent communities on the ocean (especially in that case), email research@seasteading.org, or post to the Research Forums.