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Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

bbc.com

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Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#291

Post by jonathankoren »

justrealist wrote: post #258
gmiller123456 wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what Gus Grissom said.

Lot of people probably won't get the subtext on this one. (although he was recently-probably-exonerated in that case).

I think it’s more the Apollo 1 door opening to the inside and secured by nonexplosive bolts, rather than the spuriously blown door on Liberty Bell 7.

FWIW, while NASA may had thrown him under the bus, his comrades in the astronaut corps believed him. Wally Schirra on Sigma 7, refused to blow the door until the capsule was on the Kearsarge. When he climbed out, he showed the bruise on his hand — the same bruise every one got when they pushed the escape button. The same bruise Grissom did not have.

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019254674/gus-grissom-libert...

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#292

Post by jacquesm »

patrec wrote: post #282
jacquesm wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be a good thing if the people who did make this contraption also didn't make submersible vessels based on the bits and pieces that have made it into the news so far. This sounded like an accident waiting to happen. At those pressures if something goes wrong it will crumple like a tin can and having the hatch sealed from the outside means that even if they didn't die at depth they may not have a way out if th…

In what scenario would not being sealed from the outside make a positive difference? If they managed to surface, how would being able to "get out" in the middle of the ocean be helpful? If they didn't manage to surface, under what circumstances would have opening the hatch helped?

Air.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#293

Post by jacquesm »

Yeroc wrote: post #249
jacquesm wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be a good thing if the people who did make this contraption also didn't make submersible vessels based on the bits and pieces that have made it into the news so far. This sounded like an accident waiting to happen. At those pressures if something goes wrong it will crumple like a tin can and having the hatch sealed from the outside means that even if they didn't die at depth they may not have a way out if th…

Well it seems like the President and CEO of the company was onboard the craft so I suppose the answer is "yes".

I highly doubt he built the sub.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#294

Post by actionfromafar »

patrec wrote: post #282
jacquesm wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be a good thing if the people who did make this contraption also didn't make submersible vessels based on the bits and pieces that have made it into the news so far. This sounded like an accident waiting to happen. At those pressures if something goes wrong it will crumple like a tin can and having the hatch sealed from the outside means that even if they didn't die at depth they may not have a way out if th…

In what scenario would not being sealed from the outside make a positive difference? If they managed to surface, how would being able to "get out" in the middle of the ocean be helpful? If they didn't manage to surface, under what circumstances would have opening the hatch helped?

They could get air.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#295

Post by sgjohnson »

imglorp wrote: post #53
ralphhughes wrote: post #40

Skimming the website, I assume this submersible is using electromagnetically attached drop-weights so that if anything goes wrong and power is lost, the weights drop off and the submersible floats up to the surface again? And 96 hours of life support sounds good, but unless there is another submersible nearby that can dive down, find them AND attach a line, the number of hours of life support will be irrelevant. Of c…

A location pinger would be a no brainer but like you say, it only helps if there's another sub with a grapple in range, in time. I understand why oceanographers /might/ want to do this, but not in person when ROV tech is so good now, for biology and tourism. There are so many things that can happen to fragile humans in that complex machine: drowning, freezing, asphyxiating, crushing, oxygen narcosis, nitrogen narcosi…

> So why do people risk all that, and pay 125k to do it?

People enjoy casual risk-taking.

If I had the 125k to dish out for this experience, I probably would have done so myself.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#296

Post by kossTKR »

svnt wrote: post #127
svnt wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh it keeps going at 3:30: [CEO gestures at interior lighting] “I got these from… Camper World.” “We run the whole thing from this game controller.” [shows some knockoff controller]

I found the (wireless, $30) game controller: https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Nano-Receiver-Contr... and this from a review: “Pretty good controller, fits in hand comfortably and is compatible with anything I throw at it in a Debian linux environment. The conductive pads are extremely low quality though as I've had to replace them 3 times in the 2 years Ive been using it. For a Logitech product I expect bette…

Ok that’s absolutely bizarre! That and the rest of the interior made from alibaba products that should have been military grade.

Can anyone even try to explain this choice? Even a hobbyist would curate the inside with top of the line products and aesthetics - this dude this dude has just jerry rigged some cheap chinese crap - what the actual hell?

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#297

Post by meghan_rain »

It's intriguing to see what kind of personality a billionaire has that pushes him to do these stunts and also publicly brag about them. I hope it's not a necessary ingredient to success as I do not intend to live like that.

That being said,

> He added that because the passengers were sealed inside the vessel by bolts applied from the outside, "There's no way to escape, even if you rise to the surface by yourself. You cannot get out of the sub without a crew on the outside letting you out."

ouch

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#298

Post by jacquesm »

vkou wrote: post #240
jacquesm wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. Which is why space is easier than the deep ocean, a fact that whoever was on that sub may not have fully appreciated.

If space is easier than the deep ocean, how is it that the Trieste (the submersible that explored the Challenger Deep) was built in a year on a budget of millions by a single shipyard, while it took massive, multi-year, multi-billion dollar, national efforts to go to space?

Because getting into the ocean just requires some ballast. You can jump overboard any ship at any time in a diving bell and see how far you make it. Or not. But going to orbital velocity is another matter entirely. But once you are in space vs once you are in the deep ocean the environment will try to kill you in entirely different ways and in that sense space is easier than the deep ocean. Some parts of earth are off limits with present day technology and the Titanic is roughly on the border of what you can do with some degree of reliability. And probably less reliability than was forecast. With space, once you are out there given enough fuel the solar system is your for the taking. Until you dive down in another gravity well.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#299

Post by bombcar »

minedwiz wrote: post #267
systemtest wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there some sort of underwater "GPS" tracker they can use to track the sub?

Communicating with submarines is actually a nightmare. The saltwater ruins most radio communications, so you have no chance to receive GPS signals, which are pretty weak even on the surface. One thing the military does/did to communicate with subs is use low-bandwidth text-only very low frequency radio, but you need colossal transmitters and there's no way the mother ship carries one. Hydrophones are also an option,…

The easiest way for a sub to communicate with the surface is to launch an icbm.

Or fire a torpedo and detonate it.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#300

Post by metiscus »

systemtest wrote: post #241
spatialaustin wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David Pogue, who traveled to the Titanic with OceanGate last summer, has said that he was on the control ship when a previous sub was "lost for about 5 hours". Source: https://twitter.com/Pogue/status/1670835763536183297

Is there some sort of underwater "GPS" tracker they can use to track the sub?

If the sub had imploded, it is likely that the implosion may have been detected by various naval assets. I don't think that SOSUS is still active but there is very likely something similar with enough sensitivity to detect this somewhere in the ocean. The question would be if classification etc would allow speedy relay of that information to the search teams etc. Granted, not much to search for if there was an implosion.
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