Is that ship still stuck? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#311

Post by wongarsu » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:47 PM UTC

adflux wrote: post #155

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Love the armchair engineers who think they're gonna solve this better than billion dollar companies

So you are complaining that on a startup forum people are trying to solve billion dollar questions?

Besides, billion dollar companies often miss things. Yes, they have the more relevant experts and much better data than we, but they have to content with internal and external politics and have fewer people throwing around ideas. Sometimes the answer is to "why haven't you done X" is simply "nobody with a voice to be heard had that idea". If billion dollar companies were the infallible giants you make them out to be then startups straight up couldn't work.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#312

Post by rbx » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:47 PM UTC

Apparently, the ship drew a giant penis before getting stuck: https://nypost.com/2021/03/24/cargo-ship-drew-penis-before-g...

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#313

Post by smegger001 » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:48 PM UTC

lstodd wrote: post #214

qbasic_forever wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hrm change of plans, let's pull a few ICBMs out and set them up on each corner with massive tow lines. We'll get it out the way in an instant... and into low earth orbit minutes later!

Forget it. Let's just nuke it, them nuclear weapons have to be disposed of somehow, and the channel needs some expansion, it seems.

well lets just dig out the old mothballed project plowshare out of the coldwar toolbox and see what we can do.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#314

Post by Karupan » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

OT: is it a given that the person responsible (the captain?) will be fired once this is over? Can the org running the Suez Canal deny entry to vessels by black listing the captain?

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#315

Post by phenylene » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

My non-techie wife just said to me, "We need to NFT this situation somehow."

She's been down that rabbit hole ever since reading about the Beeple piece.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#316

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

adflux wrote: post #155

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Love the armchair engineers who think they're gonna solve this better than billion dollar companies

[deleted]

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#317

Post by stragies » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:50 PM UTC

frozenlettuce wrote: post #61

p1mrx wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The humor of the entire situation suddenly gave way to a run for survival as huge chunks of container blubber fell everywhere."

"the blast blew blubber beyond any believe boundaries"

The original source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPuaSY0cMK8

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#318

Post by kergonath » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:51 PM UTC

arnaudsm wrote: post #96

ksec wrote: post #8

~15% of the World's trade is dependent on it and this is taking much longer than expected. Why?

Extrapolating from the 2014 extensions, building a 2nd backup canal would cost >$8B. Considering it earns $10B/year to Egypt, I don't know if this short downtime will justify the cost to them.

It is costing much more than that to shipping companies and the broader industry. If that is an option, I am sure they’ll find the money. That probably would take much longer than un-sticking the ship, assuming this is possible.

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#319

Post by rapnie » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:51 PM UTC

01100011 wrote: post #169

blhack wrote: post #39

I don't think people are giving enough credit to how stuck the ship is. Look at some of the photos of the front of it. Look at how far out of the water it is sitting. The ship might look like that if it were totally empty, but not when it is full of containers like this. Some people saying: just drag it off of the sand. Okay! And what happens when that causes you to rip a hole into the hull of the ship? Now it's real…

Could you build a temporary barrier around the ship and the section of the canal, bring in some massive pumps, and temporarily raise the water level around the ship? Edit: Something like this https://www.hydrologicalsolutions.com/aqua-barrier-cofferdam...

In the middle parts of the ship it is probably not grounded, so you might have ropes below the hull with large inflatable balloons on both sides below water level, to give the ship extra lift. Then on a high tide, with oil & water removed, maybe some dredging on the sides where it needs to rotate to, and.. go!

Re: Is that ship still stuck?

#320

Post by garaetjjte » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 10:51 PM UTC

qbasic_forever wrote: post #132

leesec wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even close. This ship is absolutely giant.

Hrm change of plans, let's pull a few ICBMs out and set them up on each corner with massive tow lines. We'll get it out the way in an instant... and into low earth orbit minutes later!

ICBMs won't do it, we need something stronger.

I cannot find how much ship weights itself, but deadweight tonnage which is about 200000t. Let's assume 300000t. Thrust of Saturn V S-IC stage is 3300t, with diameter of 10m, empty mass of 130t and 2150t of propellant for 150s burn time. It would need nearly 300 fully fuelled S-IC stages to lift it! Which is a bit too much, as with 400x60m ship area we can only fit about 240 stages. But as we're definitely not going into orbit anyway we can reduce propellant amount for shorter burn time. Cutting propellant by half reducing burn time to 75s we only need around 143 stages, fitting on ship with room to spare.

So in that regard it is doable. But there's problem of what to do with all the exhaust, as rockets obviously aren't designed for pulling load attached to the bottom...