Titanic tourist sub goes missing in Atlantic Ocean, June 2023 #4

[tezi]

New story from Wired

The Ocean Sciences Building at the University of Washington in Seattle is a brightly modern, four-story structure, with large glass windows reflecting the bay across the street.

On the afternoon of July 7, 2016, it was being slowly locked down.

[...]

In the building’s high-pressure testing facility, a black, pill-shaped capsule hung from a hoist on the ceiling. About 3 feet long, it was a scale model of a submersible called Cyclops 2, developed by a local startup called OceanGate. The company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, had cofounded the company in 2009 as a sort of submarine charter service, anticipating a growing need for commercial and research trips to the ocean floor. At first, Rush acquired older, steel-hulled subs for expeditions, but in 2013 OceanGate had begun designing what the company called “a revolutionary new manned submersible.” Among the sub’s innovations were its lightweight hull, which was built from carbon fiber and could accommodate more passengers than the spherical cabins traditionally used in deep-sea diving. By 2016, Rush’s dream was to take paying customers down to the most famous shipwreck of them all: the Titanic, 3,800 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Engineers carefully lowered the Cyclops 2 model into the testing tank nose-first, like a bomb being loaded into a silo, and then screwed on the tank’s 3,600-pound lid. Then they began pumping in water, increasing the pressure to mimic a submersible’s dive. If you’re hanging out at sea level, the weight of the atmosphere above you exerts 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi). The deeper you go, the stronger that pressure; at the Titanic’s depth, the pressure is about 6,500 psi. Soon, the pressure gauge on UW’s test tank read 1,000 psi, and it kept ticking up—2,000 psi, 5,000 psi. At about the 73-minute mark, as the pressure in the tank reached 6,500 psi, there was a sudden roar and the tank shuddered violently.

Thank you for posting this. A very interesting article, IMO.

 

[somequestions]

The following clip is some new interesting information. The University of Washington had more involvement with the Titan submersible than what was previously known. They were also very concerned about any type of glass used in the construction of the submersible.

 

[Countem]

OceanGate co-founder reveals dive into the Bahamas' 'Portal of Hell'

OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein is going to the 'portal to Hell' hole in the Bahamas with scientist Kenny Broad and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[callmehenry]

Good for him, I guess.

However, people have been taking submersibles down to the Titanic for 40 years. I don't know that I would call it "safe" exactly, but a mission to the Titanic in a properly designed and built sub has an excellent chance for success. I don't know what exactly this new vessel is supposed to prove. Or is just some self-aggrandizing, thrill-seeking behavior from a billionaire?

Too much money, not enough sense