Titanic tourist submarine
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An update on the What could possibly go wrong files...
From CNN...
“There are 10 submarines in the world that can go 12,000 ft and deeper,” Kohnen said. “All of them are certified except the Oceangate submersible.”
The CEO of OceanGate, the company that operated trips to the Titanic wreckage in a submersible vessel, said in 2021 that he wanted to be remembered as an innovator who broke the rules.
From BBC:
"Typically, the part of deep-sea submersible housing the humans is a titanium sphere around 2m in diameter," said Dr Nicolai Roterdam, lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth.
To withstand the immense pressures of the deep you need super-strong materials, to resist the weight of water above that's pressing down on you.
Carbon fibre is cheaper than titanium or steel and is extremely strong, but it is largely untested for deep sea vessels like the Titan.
In an interview with Oceanographic last year, OceanGate's CEO Rush Stockton said: "Carbon fibre is used successfully in yachts and in aviation, but it has not been used in crewed submersibles."the court documents, Mr Lochridge claimed the hull had not been properly tested - where it's placed under extreme pressures and analysed to look for potential problems.
He claimed that trials on a smaller scale model of the sub had revealed flaws in the carbon under pressure testing.
Mr Lochridge also raised the issue of the Titan's glass viewport. He claimed the company that made the material would only certify its use down to 1,300m.
And
The shape of the Titan is also unusual.
The hull of a deep-diving sub is usually spherical, which means it receives an equal amount of pressure at every point, but Titan's hull is tube-shaped, so the pressure would not be equally distributed.
"Titan is quite a different deep-sea submersible compared to those used in research," said Dr Roterman.
"Whether or not this design with composite materials represents a structural weakness would be for engineers to determine, however," she added.
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“When I started the business, one of the things you’ll find, there are other sub-operators out there, but they typically have, uh, gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and they — you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told Teledyne Marine in a newly resurfaced undated Zoom interview. “I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational and I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology, but a 25-year-old, uh, you know, who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational,” he continued. “So we’ve really tried to get, um, very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.” -
... Recounting his journey to the wreck, Loibl said: “The first submarine didn’t work, then a dive at 1600 metres had to be abandoned.
“My mission was the fifth, but we also went into the water five hours late due to electrical problems.”
Prior to the launch of the sub, Loibl said the bracket of the stabilisation tube – used to provide balance as the craft descends into the depths – fell off the vessel.
But, he added: “That was reattached with zip ties. That didn’t worry me.”
Titanic submersible missing: Voyage to wreckage is a ‘suicide mission’, says German explorer
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Legal team is warming up
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@MiketheSnow am sure they signed a waiver as watertight as the sub...
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@Victor-Meldrew it did occur to me that this is getting a helluva lot of coverage for 5 people no-one knew until now.
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@Bones said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:
@Victor-Meldrew it did occur to me that this is getting a helluva lot of coverage for 5 people no-one knew until now.
it presses all the media buttons
Titanic
A ticking clock
Deep sea expeditions
BillionairesI can't get excited, but it is right up main stream media channels. THe sub sounds like a non-certified death trap.
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@nzzp said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:
@Bones said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:
@Victor-Meldrew it did occur to me that this is getting a helluva lot of coverage for 5 people no-one knew until now.
it presses all the media buttons
Titanic
A ticking clock
Deep sea expeditions
BillionairesI can't get excited, but it is right up main stream media channels. The sub sounds like a non-certified death trap.
There’s already some pretty fucked up memes doing the rounds about it too.
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@Bones Yeah, I thought that too. But there are ways to make that point without coming across like a virtue-seeking fluffybunny on twitter.
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@nzzp said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:
@Bones said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:
@Victor-Meldrew it did occur to me that this is getting a helluva lot of coverage for 5 people no-one knew until now.
it presses all the media buttons
Titanic
A ticking clock
Deep sea expeditions
BillionairesI can't get excited, but it is right up main stream media channels. THe sub sounds like a non-certified death trap.
It had lights bought from a camping store, and the steering was a gaming controller! That's intrepid
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This post is deleted!
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@Bones said in Titanic tourist submarine:
I'm quite surprised that for a commercial consumer operation, they didn't need to have a comprehensive recovery plan signed off.
My guess is international waters means it's a lawless waste land and you can do what you want
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@mariner4life said in Titanic tourist submarine:
@Bones said in Titanic tourist submarine:
I'm quite surprised that for a commercial consumer operation, they didn't need to have a comprehensive recovery plan signed off.
My guess is international waters means it's a lawless waste land and you can do what you want
That instantly popped into my head as what you were going to say when I saw you'd replied, good point. Company will be registered somewhere though right?
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Titanic tourist submarine:
Liberal compassion once again.
Now, I'm pretty far from being a lefty (no way ....) but this was sent to me from a lefty pal and it really has made me think:
Five hundred people drowned trying to reach Europe last week and it was covered but my god contrasting it to the coverage of this Titanic submarine is just appalling to see, so much more focus, experts on, analysis and interest from the public. Certain lives are so cheap to us
