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Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

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Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#151
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't visiting places filled with dead and decomposing people a fairly normal tourist activity? Various catacombs, graveyards, temples, battlefields, memorials, Pompeii... I've got no real thoughts on the "stupidity" of doing this, but visiting the wreck of a famous ship doesn't seem an obviously unsympathetic thing to do compared to visiting the ruins of a city.

Yes...but those are places where where the dead received "proper" burials. (Excepting Pompeii, and maybe some battlefields. Pompeii tends to get a pass because "ancient", "technically buried", and "A-listed Roman cultural site".) And generally, visiting ~none of those other places is a brag-worthy way to show off being one of the modern 0.1%. (Which, these days, gets very little sympathy in many quarters. Even withou…

I'm caught up on this "buried" thing. Like if the site is of historical significance what difference does proper burial make?

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#152
post #5

I had no idea that "tourists" visited Titanic. Is this the new thing after Everest became crowded?

I was told by WIRED that Richard Branson was offering suborbital spaceflights soon- back in 2005.

https://www.amazon.com/Wired-Magazine-January-Richard-Galact...

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#153
post #123
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is an article with a few more details on the construction of the Cyclops vessel: https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/composite-submersib... ...still not seeing what the carbon fiber is buying here, other than historical reasons / "that's how we do composite pressure vessels". Maybe it adds some slight rigidity when it is being raised up out of the water?

From the linked article: "OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush says the company had been evaluating the potential of using a carbon fiber composite hull since 2010, primarily because it permits creation of a pressure vessel that is naturally buoyant and, therefore, would enable OceanGate to forgo the use — and the significant expense — of syntactic foam on its exterior."

My first thought was that expanding foam from the hardware store is very cheap, but obviously that sort of foam would be crushed by the water pressure.

> Syntactic foams are composite materials synthesized by filling a metal, polymer,[1] cementitious or ceramic matrix with hollow spheres called microballoons[2] or cenospheres or non-hollow spheres (e.g. perlite) as aggregates.[3] In this context, "syntactic" means "put together." [...] The compressive properties of syntactic foams, in most cases, strongly depend on the properties of microballoons.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#154
post #53

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…

[dead]

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#155
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What better alternatives would they have in the middle of the ocean?

More traditional satellite networks, I guess? As I understand it, this is what sailors do / did before starlink. This had me curious if I could find coverage maps of satellite operators, and I found this: https://www.satphonestore.com/coveragemaps

I'm speculating, but I'm fairly sure that they already have any and every satellite communication system available on-board, just as a back-up. If they're using Star link, it should be because it's working best.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#156

I'm hesitant to speculate but just sharing -- an earlier version of this submersible was scrapped: "OceanGate will take advantage of lessons learned during the construction of its carbon-hulled Titan submersible, which was originally built for Titanic journeys. Rush said tests that were conducted at the Deep Ocean Test Facility in Annapolis, Md., revealed that the Titan’s hull “showed signs of cyclic fatigue.” As a r…

unfortunately this sounds like "move fast and break things" in the worst possible way.

It gets boring hearing people who can't program or manage blurt out 'move fast and break things' whenever they hear of failure.

Learn to code. Or if you're not smart enough learn project management.

Alternatively stop using sayings in other peoples fields. Do something dumb like journalism.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#157

I'm hesitant to speculate but just sharing -- an earlier version of this submersible was scrapped: "OceanGate will take advantage of lessons learned during the construction of its carbon-hulled Titan submersible, which was originally built for Titanic journeys. Rush said tests that were conducted at the Deep Ocean Test Facility in Annapolis, Md., revealed that the Titan’s hull “showed signs of cyclic fatigue.” As a r…

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

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfortunately this sounds like "move fast and break things" in the worst possible way.

[flagged]

As someone with a surname that is easily made fun of, I urge you to just leave off irrelevant quips.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#159

I'm hesitant to speculate but just sharing -- an earlier version of this submersible was scrapped: "OceanGate will take advantage of lessons learned during the construction of its carbon-hulled Titan submersible, which was originally built for Titanic journeys. Rush said tests that were conducted at the Deep Ocean Test Facility in Annapolis, Md., revealed that the Titan’s hull “showed signs of cyclic fatigue.” As a r…

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

> and they shut off the ship’s internet to prevent us from tweeting.

Some how that makes it even worse.

Re: Titanic tourist submersible goes missing with search under way

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

any evidence human remains ie posed to ocean water and 12k of pressure i believe is long gone

Not in the ocean, but I believe there are shipwrecks in Lake Superior with preserved bodies https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Whitey

Even in the ocean, human remains may be partially preserved if the conditions are right for it. They found human remains in or around the Vasa, a Swedish warship that sank in 1628. Mostly just bones, but also a little bit of soft tissue more than 300 years later.

> Organic materials fared better in the anaerobic conditions, and so wood, cloth and leather are often in very good condition, but objects exposed to the currents were eroded by the sediment in the water, so that some are barely recognizable.[43] Objects which fell off the hull into the mud after the nails corroded through were well protected, so that many of the sculptures still retain areas of paint and gilding. Of the human remains, most of the soft tissue was consumed, leaving only the bones, which were often held together only by clothing, although in one case, hair, nails and brain tissue survived.[44]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)#Deterioration

The brain in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD8xOCoct4w

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