If you live in a coastal place, and if you don't hate water, I recommend joining a sailing club and start sailing. It is a great social catalyst and it is relatively easy to get started.
> Ocean Builders determined that the toppling was caused by a bilge pump malfunction that threw off the balance of a steel spar in the prototype and caused it to flood.
Wait, you need a bilge pump to maintain stability? Please don't tell me that this is 100% dependent on sensors and software controlling a highly complex underwater system. In a seawater environment.
The sensors are likely pretty reliable, solved and proven technology unless they try something magic like balancing those. I would be really worried about power supply... If someone for example decides to anchor anywhere near these...
Don't get me wrong here - An active balancing system is almost certainly required.
These pods are positioned on top of a "mast" floating in the ocean. Climb the mast of a large sailboat that is anchored in a calm harbor and you'll instantly understand why people try to avoid doing so in the open ocean.
The steady state of this thing needs to be very very stable. The more I think about it, the less I believe that this can be made to be comfortable at the prices they are quoting.
Balancing your home on some pumps and sensors, no matter how reliable, sounds like an extraordinarily bad idea. It needs to have passive stability. If everything breaks down, it still needs to be stable enough to stay upright in a storm.
There is no such thing as a "reliable" sensor in the marine environment. Everything is constantly corroding and requires frequent skilled maintenance. This is only solved in the sense that skilled workers know how to do the necessary maintenance, but it's never going to be cheap and I wouldn't want to rely on the average homeowner to do it properly.
