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Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

bbc.com

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Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#3

I'm curious why there aren't drone cameras that can explore the interior.

Take your pick:

* Difficult to navigate in a narrow underwater structure without crashing

* Signal penetration, or lack thereof, in an iron hull at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean

* Extremely niche technology that would have few practical uses in other contexts since most of the seabed does not suffer from the same complexities as a shipwreck

* Can't see for shit underwater in general

* We already know whats down there and why it's down there, therefore unlikely to lead to significant new information

* This could actually be considered desecrating a mass grave under maritime law

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#4

I'm curious why there aren't drone cameras that can explore the interior.

Undersea drones are a remarkably (and fascinatingly!) complex field.

Ignoring all the mechanical challenges (airtight, watertight machine that can operate under crushing pressures and still has a way to separate delicate, saltwater-sensitive electronics and actuators from external-facing motive devices), the communications are also a challenge: radio does awful under water (VLF can go 100 feet, but now you're trying to control something inside the Titanic with radio signals that bounce off all the still-existent metal in wild ways; problem is a bit harder than "get full WiFi coverage of your house"). Sound would actually probably be a great tool, but sound also behaves strangely under water that deep. The most well-researched, well-tested solution is a long cable back to the control ship, but that constrains how deep you can get into the Titanic (one idea I've never seen floated: attach a fleet of robots to the cable, a main one for exploration and observation and multiple wire-managers who's full job is to anchor to something and manage the cable slack... But now you're anchoring to the wreck, so that's also not good).

Fully-autonomous robots might actually be the best option here, and the only thing stopping that is the actual research and development to build a machine that can make independent decisions exploring an environment with unknown shapes, dangerous sharp edges, and possible currents, in full 3D. We've put more research into rovers on Mars than into this problem.

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#5

I'm curious why there aren't drone cameras that can explore the interior.

Anything you're remotely sending down there is going to be attached to a long wire and rather big. Also navigating tight spaces underwater can be challenging even for a human, in person. Navigating them with a brick remotely is much harder.

Some setups have smaller ROVs launched from another submersible, like ROV ROBIN.

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#6

I'm curious why there aren't drone cameras that can explore the interior.

Take your pick: * Difficult to navigate in a narrow underwater structure without crashing * Signal penetration, or lack thereof, in an iron hull at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean * Extremely niche technology that would have few practical uses in other contexts since most of the seabed does not suffer from the same complexities as a shipwreck * Can't see for shit underwater in general * We already know whats down th…

One does wonder precisely how many decades (or centuries) have to pass before "desecrating a mass grave" becomes "archaeology" (... "he ruminates while thinking about that fascinating Pompeii exhibit that toured through town one year...").

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take your pick: * Difficult to navigate in a narrow underwater structure without crashing * Signal penetration, or lack thereof, in an iron hull at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean * Extremely niche technology that would have few practical uses in other contexts since most of the seabed does not suffer from the same complexities as a shipwreck * Can't see for shit underwater in general * We already know whats down th…

One does wonder precisely how many decades (or centuries) have to pass before "desecrating a mass grave" becomes "archaeology" (... "he ruminates while thinking about that fascinating Pompeii exhibit that toured through town one year...").

I think they're just throwing answers out they would find plausible.

They are not reflected by reality. (i.e. from inside, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pun18bi_0-g)

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take your pick: * Difficult to navigate in a narrow underwater structure without crashing * Signal penetration, or lack thereof, in an iron hull at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean * Extremely niche technology that would have few practical uses in other contexts since most of the seabed does not suffer from the same complexities as a shipwreck * Can't see for shit underwater in general * We already know whats down th…

One does wonder precisely how many decades (or centuries) have to pass before "desecrating a mass grave" becomes "archaeology" (... "he ruminates while thinking about that fascinating Pompeii exhibit that toured through town one year...").

oh man, idk if you've ever been to the metropolitan museum of art in NYC, but they have dozens, maybe even hundreds, of dead bodies that were removed from their burial sites without consulting any next-of-kin (not that you'd be able to figure out who that is) on display in glass cases. But apparently its alright since nobody's left to argue on behalf of whatever pagan religion or cult they participated in.

Re: Titanic digital scan reveals new details of ship's final hours

#10

I'm curious why there aren't drone cameras that can explore the interior.

Take your pick: * Difficult to navigate in a narrow underwater structure without crashing * Signal penetration, or lack thereof, in an iron hull at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean * Extremely niche technology that would have few practical uses in other contexts since most of the seabed does not suffer from the same complexities as a shipwreck * Can't see for shit underwater in general * We already know whats down th…

One of those rare occasions where I can't possibly just salute an excellent comment with a mere upvote. Superbly balanced effort, each bullet point equally devastating and perfectly expressed.
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