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Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

arstechnica.com

511–520 of 1001 posts

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#511

"At the meeting Lochridge discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department—the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters. Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to experimen…

The sub has already survived multiple dives to 4000 meters, and so far nobody has come out with reports of any apparent problems with the viewport. Maybe it failed from an impact or from accumulated fractures from all these pressure cycles, but I'm also completely willing to believe that the depth-rating for human occupancy has enough of a safety factor that going 3 times deeper doesn't lead to failure. From the pre-…

If the banging sound article was correct, it sounds like they had a failure of the ballast not coming off...

I wonder how many layer of safety there is, there should probably be at least 3 independent ways that ballast can come off when your life depends on it..

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is simply unbelievable that the company was even able to get to the point of diving to such depths with humans aboard. As I get older, I see this sentiment as very naive. The tacit assumption seems to be that there is an agency, a government, an organization, that would review and approve such endeavors. But that's just not how the world works. You can't stop people from going to sea, or sending contraptions to t…

It's wild to me that you write "As I get older, I see this sentiment as very naive." And then go on to say some breathtakingly naive things. A lot of ocean activity is thoroughly regulated. For example: https://www.imo.org/en/About/Conventions/Pages/International... Moreover, It's not like they're getting paid in sand dollars or doubloons from the bottom of the sea. The passengers are signing contracts and paying lar…

So you're saying there is an agency/organization that would review and approve such endeavors? What is it, in this case?

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#513
Something that I found strange was the use of carbon fibre for the main pressure vessel.

I was under the impression that the exceptional strength carbon fibre is only in tension, and that it isn't particularly good in compression.

Why would OceanGate use carbon fibre? Other similar deep-diving submersibles used either steel or titanium, which are isotropic and have high compressive strengths.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#514
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everyone involved knew what they were getting into." Did they? I might have missed that part.

>> OceanGate says it is an experimental vessel, and when CBS travelled onboard the correspondent had to sign a waiver accepting that it "has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65960217 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=29co_Hksk6o

When you get right down to it, the people who boarded this submersible on Sunday probably didn’t want to die. No matter what waiver they signed.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#515
post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is not authoritarian to regulate things like safety for the general public. It is a necessary component of a complex society. The main distinction between a self-determined vs authoritarian govt is the independence or lack thereof of all of the govt and society's institutions, including he legislative, executive, & judicial branches of govt, and in general society the press, industry, academy, religious orgs,…

This is not the general public, this is a few adventurers. Very different. Also, desiring to give up power to an authority is authoritarianism (at least according to Oxford): “ the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.”

It's not different. "OceanGate intends to make underwater exploration cheaper and accessible to private citizens", says Wikipedia. And the people on it look, aside from their wealth, like members of the general public to me. They have no particular knowledge or skill, so I don't think they have an expert's ability to evaluate the risks.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#516
post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is simply unbelievable that the company was even able to get to the point of diving to such depths with humans aboard. If they had encountered a program-destroying but non-catastrophic failure earlier on, it is possible we wouldn't be looking at one of the many horrific outcomes that this incident will likely resolve to. Looking at the accounts reported to date, the OceanGate engineering culture was basically non-…

>It is simply unbelievable that the company was even able to get to the point of diving to such depths with humans aboard. As I get older, I see this sentiment as very naive. The tacit assumption seems to be that there is an agency, a government, an organization, that would review and approve such endeavors. But that's just not how the world works. You can't stop people from going to sea, or sending contraptions to t…

So corporations doing whatever they want with no oversight regardless of the consequences is just fine and dandy? Obviously there's a middle ground between 'nanny state' and 'corporate anarchy' - reality is not so black and white and imagining it to be so is a naive sentiment.

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not the general public, this is a few adventurers. Very different. Also, desiring to give up power to an authority is authoritarianism (at least according to Oxford): “ the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom.”

It's not different. "OceanGate intends to make underwater exploration cheaper and accessible to private citizens", says Wikipedia. And the people on it look, aside from their wealth, like members of the general public to me. They have no particular knowledge or skill, so I don't think they have an expert's ability to evaluate the risks.

How would you propose regulators determine if a person is skilled or knowledgeable enough to evaluate the risks?

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you not test this at the bottom of a harbor rather than in prod.

They probably aren't allowed to put this in the water of any country that has watercraft rules. The reporter from CBS reads the form he had to sign, at 2:40 in this video: https://youtu.be/29co_Hksk6o It says something like "this experimental craft has not been certified by any regulatory body". They probably have to be in international waters to put it in water.

It's entirely legal to design and build your own boat and put it in the water pretty much anywhere in the world.

If you want to carry paying passengers then things are different, but that's why they were officially crew.

(Crew members who are paying to be there has a very long history. One of the last lines operating sailing ships, in the 1920s and 30s, made money from merchant marine cadets whose countries still required them to have a certain amount of experience as crew of a sailing vessel to get their ticket.)

Re: Submarine missing near Titanic used a $30 Logitech gamepad for steering

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It is simply unbelievable that the company was even able to get to the point of diving to such depths with humans aboard. As I get older, I see this sentiment as very naive. The tacit assumption seems to be that there is an agency, a government, an organization, that would review and approve such endeavors. But that's just not how the world works. You can't stop people from going to sea, or sending contraptions to t…

My concern with some of these endavours is the opportunity cost to rescue services. Obviously, there is no question that if anyone is in danger in a remote location we should try our best to rescue them, but the corollary is that as a responsible citizen you should avoid putting yourself in situations where others have to go to great lengths to rescue you if it can be avoided.

Yep. Any rescue attempt here will endanger others at great cost.
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