Wondering when they will call off the search. Ther oxygen ran out this morning.
I know, I was agreeing with you. Regarding the risk, it was inherent for every mission, be it the 25th, 3rd, or 113th (when the Columbia was destroyed during re-entry). Point is, the risk was too high to put civilians on board. Too many things that could go wrong in a completely unforgiving environment.
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Regardless of what anyone thinks about this venture…some people are going to lose their lives, it seems. That is very sad. I’m sorry for their families and friends who are going to lose a loved one.
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I was responding to the original claim that that those were not expensive, because readily available.
The other point was, that they are meant to be automatically activated; which would obviously send off a false alarm every time any submersible starts a dive. But if you have to manually activate it from the inside, then their “systems” have to be online - in which case they also would have normal communication.
Yes, as a layman I could think of a design with a dead-man’s switch, that goes off if not reset from the inside every xx hours.
Bottom line, there may be considerations unknown to us armchair engineers?
That is not a “hard figure”. Individual breathing rates, the number of individuals still breathing, temperature (shivering increases breathing rate) and other factors mean they only have very rough estimate.
And even if no more O2 is being added to the system, now you’re still dealing with some time before hypercapnia will start its effects - again different onset times for each person, and depending on the count of people conscious/breathing.
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Hypothermia is likely the real problem.
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Once it is clear that there is no longer any hope of finding the victims alive, I don’t believe the US, Canadian, or other governments should be expending resources trying to locate the submersible. This misadventure was a private affair, and unlike in cases where a commercial airliner goes down in the ocean, there are no data recorders to locate and there is no compelling need to try to determine exactly what caused the accident. If you die trying to climb Mount Everest, nobody from the government is coming to extract your corpse. George Mallory’s body still lies where he died nearly 100 years ago.
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The submersible was supposedly equipped with a device that would send it to the surface after 24 hours under water. Alas, even if this happened, doesn’t look that there was a beacon to let rescuers know the location.
Which I guess is the key question.
Apparently, the submersible automatically emits a “ping” every 15 minutes - the last one received 1:30 into the dive. Based on reports, at that time it likely would not have reached bottom yet.
If it continued to descend - it could be somewhere among the debris field of the Titanic, full of objects of that size, making it near impossible to detect from the surface.
If it stopped descending but lost all systems, including thrust, it could have been drifting mid-water following whatever the current at that depth.
Of course, supposedly the crew had various means to establish buoyancy - assuming hull and seals were not compromised, plus a rumored time-release system (assuming it had actually been set up on this particular dive - as it sounds like a single-dive system.)
OceanGate was obviously not the first to explore the Titanic’s final resting place. I was curious how the sub used by James Cameron to film the wreck for his movie looked like… nothing like Titan. Note bright orange paint on the top, spherical design, and lots of instrument panels. Those subs were built by a Soviet-Finnish joint venture. Here are some pictures:
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The debris is from the submersible.
Landing frame and a rear cover from Titan are believed to be found…
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Where are you reading/hearing that?
Never mind!!!
BBC reports.
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If that means the submersible imploded, I think it’s a blessing.
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Yes - although that detail is second hand information from a friend, who knows a friend,…
Unless, of course, the landing frame is the part that can be intentionally ditched to establish buoyancy - and a “cover” sounds like a non-structural tail part that’s just there to reduce drag.
Once it is clear that there is no longer any hope of finding the victims alive, I don’t believe the US, Canadian, or other governments should be expending resources trying to locate the submersible.
I don’t think governments should be expending public resources even if a human rescue is possible. This kind of ultra-high-risk commercial venture, which no insurer would back, should be required to put the cost of future rescue operations in escrow to reimburse the government. If they don’t do that, they agree that no one comes to look for them.
I know my system will never be adopted, but I think the same thing about motorcycles, etc. Wherever possible, I think people should bear the costs of their voluntary risk-taking.
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Apparently, CNN is also reporting that the debris is from the Titan based on a memo it has reviewed:
I guess all speculation will come to an end soon as the Coast Guard is having a 3pm EDT briefing in Boston that will be broadcasted.
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