Not long after scientists landed a probe on a comet millions of miles away in deep space, a Japanese construction company has announced



that it wants to go in the other direction.

Shimizu Corp. revealed blueprints for an astonishing undersea city: a vast research and residential station some 10 miles in length that begins just below the sea's surface and burrows beneath the ocean floor. Dubbed the 'Ocean Spiral', the project is projected to cost $26 billion and take five years to complete, although the research for the technology required is still in its infancy. If ever completed, it would make real visions of a latter-day Atlantis in the deep.

It has the support of a myriad research firms and Japanese government agencies. A research station at the bottom of the structure would would study ways to excavate energy from beneath the sea floor. A 15-kilometer length spiral would coil up from there to a giant sphere some 1,500 feet in diameter that would have hotels, apartments and commercial areas, and could accommodate as many as 5,000 people.