Scrutable

Al Capone Junior wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 10:48 pm 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.

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 wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2023 4:48 pm 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 wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2023 5:21 pm

jimbob wrote: Sun Jun 25, 2023 4:48 pm 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.

Al Capone Junior wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 3:16 pm 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.

Fishnut wrote: Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:08 pm 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.

Fishnut wrote: Fri Aug 18, 2023 9:08 pm 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.

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.”