Titan Terminated at Titanic

[Al Capone Junior]

I just want to know why there were many boats searching an area "the size of Connecticut" (according to CNN). Seems to me the submersible could not have possibly gotten so far on its own, and certain areas, oh I don't know, perhaps near the dive site would have had a much higher probability than areas similar in distance to the far size of Connecticut. Also searching for a stricken submarine on the surface seems unlikely to find the missing vessel. Note that I don't know anything about the currents or other relevant factors, but I just found this a bit odd.

[EACLucifer]

I just want to know why there were many boats searching an area "the size of Connecticut" (according to CNN). Seems to me the submersible could not have possibly gotten so far on its own, and certain areas, oh I don't know, perhaps near the dive site would have had a much higher probability than areas similar in distance to the far size of Connecticut. Also searching for a stricken submarine on the surface seems unlikely to find the missing vessel. Note that I don't know anything about the currents or other relevant factors, but I just found this a bit odd.

If it has ballast that is designed to automatically detach as a failsafe after a certain period of time, it would float up and thus be found near or at the surface.

However, it's fairly clear it was actually destroyed by a catastrophic implosion, and thus the wreckage of it instead sank to the ocean floor.

[Pishwish]

Another interesting twitter thread that has some interesting bits (although there may be some uninformed commentary). A composites world article describes how the hull was fabricated. Written before this happened

During a trip on board the Titan off the coast of the Bahamas in April 2019, Karl Stanley, an expert in submersibles, knew immediately that something was off: He heard a cracking noise that got only louder over the two hours it took for the submersible to plunge more than 12,000 feet.
....Mr. Rush never replied directly to that email, Mr. Stanley said. But he made some changes to the Titan, including building a new hull, and called off the planned dives for that year.
Experts said that one explanation for what might have caused the Titan to implode was that water seeped in where a titanium piece was glued into the end of the vessel’s cylinder. “It could’ve been anywhere wherever you seal the carbon fiber to the titanium, or it could’ve been around that porthole,” said Capt. Alfred McLaren...,

[jimbob]

On ISF, people are showing photos of the monitors being screwed into the carbon fibre of the hull.

Its shape seemed more irregular than I'd have expected for something to withstand such high pressures.

[Grumble]

On ISF, people are showing photos of the monitors being screwed into the carbon fibre of the hull.

Its shape seemed more irregular than I'd have expected for something to withstand such high pressures.

Deep sea challenger isn’t a sphere.

[Gfamily]

On ISF, people are showing photos of the monitors being screwed into the carbon fibre of the hull.

Its shape seemed more irregular than I'd have expected for something to withstand such high pressures.

Deep sea challenger isn’t a sphere.

The pilot sits in a spherical compartment - the rest of the craft is made of a special foam that is effectively a solid core to support the other components.

[Al Capone Junior]

Real engineering has posted a scathing review of the incident

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6LcGrLnzYuU&t=9s

Apparently this guy was one of those who warned against use of composite materials.

[bjn]

The Deep Sea podcast touches on the accident this week as the guide on it was one of their close mates and they aren’t happy at all.

[jimbob]

Real engineering has posted a scathing review of the incident

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6LcGrLnzYuU&t=9s

Apparently this guy was one of those who warned against use of composite materials.

I would have hated to work on how to design the interface between the titanium end and the carbon fibre composite cylinder over that temperature and pressure range.

[Fishnut]

Vanity Fair have a good long-read on the history of the company. There's nothing that comes as a surprise but it's clear that people in the industry had been trying to stop Rush for years with no success. I find it quite telling that he referred to the material used in the hull as "space-grade". This is something that sounds impressive if you don't know what you're talking about, but going into space is a change of 1 atmosphere. I wouldn't want anything 'space-grade' near a submersible that's going under almost 4km of water. I know that space is used as synonymous with impressive (and it's clear he was trying to be Musk or Branson on a budget) but its highlights to me how little he really understood about what he was doing.

[dyqik]

Vanity Fair have a good long-read on the history of the company. There's nothing that comes as a surprise but it's clear that people in the industry had been trying to stop Rush for years with no success. I find it quite telling that he referred to the material used in the hull as "space-grade". This is something that sounds impressive if you don't know what you're talking about, but going into space is a change of 1 atmosphere. I wouldn't want anything 'space-grade' near a submersible that's going under almost 4km of water. I know that space is used as synonymous with impressive (and it's clear he was trying to be Musk or Branson on a budget) but its highlights to me how little he really understood about what he was doing.

And for going into space, "space grade" means old technology (i.e. high heritage/technology readiness level).

[Grumble]

Vanity Fair have a good long-read on the history of the company. There's nothing that comes as a surprise but it's clear that people in the industry had been trying to stop Rush for years with no success. I find it quite telling that he referred to the material used in the hull as "space-grade". This is something that sounds impressive if you don't know what you're talking about, but going into space is a change of 1 atmosphere. I wouldn't want anything 'space-grade' near a submersible that's going under almost 4km of water. I know that space is used as synonymous with impressive (and it's clear he was trying to be Musk or Branson on a budget) but its highlights to me how little he really understood about what he was doing.

Thanks for that link. It never seems to get better does it? Each article is more detailed and consequently more damning.

[Fishnut]

Tangentially related, there's a new piece about Musk in The New Yorker that looks at the massive influence and power that has now been consolidated into one man. Rush and Musk are both people with enough money to ignore rules and regulations but because of the nature of Musk's businesses, the government has very little recourse when he does.

In the past twenty years, against a backdrop of crumbling infrastructure and declining trust in institutions, Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where, after decades of privatization, the state has receded. The government is now reliant on him, but struggles to respond to his risk-taking, brinkmanship, and caprice. Current and former officials from NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration told me that Musk’s influence had become inescapable in their work, and several of them said that they now treat him like a sort of unelected official.

...

“The U.S. government is in massive catch-up to build a more resilient space architecture,” Kahl, the former Pentagon Under-Secretary, told me. “And that only works if you can leverage the explosion of commercial space.” Several officials told me that they were alarmed by NASA’s reliance on SpaceX for essential services. “There is only one thing worse than a government monopoly. And that is a private monopoly that the government is dependent on,” Bridenstine said. “I do worry that we have put all of our eggs into one basket, and it’s the SpaceX basket.”