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Titanic tourist sub missing

This is even more insane. I mean. A playstation controller?


72313505-12214617-The_journalist_holding_up_a_modified_Logitech_games_controller_t-a-4_1687273198304.jpg
 
If that Xbox controller is the primary mode of control and it's not some marketing BS, then never mind its reliability. If it gets knocked out of the pilot's hands, it is going to be very hard to see in those low light conditions in the sub and with those long extensions to the thumbpads, it is 100% going to give an input if it falls any way than straight on it's back.

The whole thing is crazy.
 
TBF, playstation controllers have millions of hours of testing behind them.
But they're designed for a short life where if they go wrong you only die in Minecraft. I think gaming controllers are actually pretty notorious for not lasting.

The operators seem to have made a virtue out of using components from DIY stores and eBay. Hilarious trolling of the so-called professionals, until now.
 
Submarines and helicopters. If they go wrong it's generally fatal

When we were designing and fielding our unmanned deep sea landers, the "loss rate" in this field was considered to be around 50% - ie every other cruise, we could expect to lose at least one complete lander.

After more than a decade of doing this, we were considered amongst the best in the business because our loss rate was closer to 25%, although that did include a couple of cruises where nothing returned at all and one where we "claimed" a US navy vessel!

The most common cause of failure/loss was a failure in the communication systems that brought the landers back to the surface and signalled to the support ship where to come and pick them-up. Ocean currents at different depths can bring-up vehicles a significant distance from where they went down/you might expect to find them. Cold/pressure at those depths is very hard on electronics and batteries.

With even that loss rate, there is no way I would consider going as a passenger on one of those vehicles - Remote cameras all the way!
 
If that Xbox controller is the primary mode of control and it's not some marketing BS, then never mind its reliability. If it gets knocked out of the pilot's hands, it is going to be very hard to see in those low light conditions in the sub and with those long extensions to the thumbpads, it is 100% going to give an input if it falls any way than straight on it's back.

This super-technical appraisal comes to you by Storm Fox ... off the internet.
 
If anyone else doesn't feel this but wants to, can I recommend either listening to a BBC drama from the 90s called "Close Enough to Touch" or reading a book called "The Admiralty Regrets....", both of which describe the loss of HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay.

I've seen both and have been fully cured of the notion of ever going on or near a submarine ever again.
My dad was working in Cammell Laird shipyard when that happened. He wasn't overly fond of the Admiralty.
 
Titan is a ridiculously under-engineered piece of amateurish junk. I expect that it has suffered complete electrical failure (judging pictures showing a lot of electrical boxes and connecting cable all over the outside of the hull) or hull failure at a joining point between materials with different expansion/mechanical behaviours (window-to-hull, or titanium hemisphere-to-carbon fibre hull).

Still even a few minutes thought by me, a rusty engineer and amateur diver, can devise a reasonable-chance-of-survival safety system:

1) An automatic timer starts at the beginning of the dive.
2) After say 5 hours (nominal mission duration) the timer triggers inflation of one or more heavy duty lift bags fitted to the upper surface of the vessel. There is a problem: the pressure at Titanic depth is 400 bar, but even the best pressure rated diving cylinders at rated at 250-300 bar. In other words, if you opened such a cylinder at Titanic depth, water would rush into it. But there is a workaround: salvage some carbon fibre hydrogen cylinders (rated at 700 bar) from a Toyota Mirai and fill them with cheap and non-flammable nitrogen.
3) The vessel would hurtle upwards, and the expanding nitrogen would spill out of the open bottom of the bag, as is normal lifting bag procedure.
4) Approaching the surface, a depth gauge/actuator would release one or more ERIRBs (Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon) tethered to the vessel.
5) The vessel is designed to float just beneath the surface. So finally, a set of closed flotation bags would be activated, acting as a sort of collar, bringing the vessel securely to the surface.

The final problem is that there is no way of getting out from the inside, which is a terrible design choice. I would redesign, allowing the hatch bolts to be undone from either inside or outside.


6L/ 300 bar cylinder with valve
Hydrogen? Is that safe? - Toyota Europe
View attachment 380097
GlobalFIX V4 EPIRB GPS Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon
China Underwater Lift Bags, Underwater Lift Bags Manufacturers, Suppliers,  Price | Made-in-China.com
 
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