- Joined
- Jul 10, 2017
Right. Once they released the ballast it should have a shot up like a cork. They *might* have made it. Having to use the thrusters and still barely moving is awful, I’m convincing myself they set it up too heavy on purpose to try to speed up the descent, but just guessed and overdid it. We need to know a few more things about the subs design to really know. I'm waiting for at least the preliminary report. How did this thing manage bounancy? Also the first thing to my eye is the thrusters looked grossly inadequite. There is a reason why most submersibles use 6. And 6 larger fans. The diameter of those just did not look large enough to my eye to move sufficient water to actually lift the sub. And the way those were configured all 4 thrusters needed to be fully operational to have any control.
I'm skeptical of the transcripts authenticity. But there likely is some element of what happened in it. We know the ballast and skids were jetisoned and the sub was at least attempting to climb. We know that from the Coast Guard. We do know that the sub did not develop a slow water leak into the main pressure vessel. Because yes that would have mulched everyone instantly. And no carbon fiber does not act like a sponge. Even if the carbon fiber was getting water penetration it would not impact the bouancy. Because the carbon fiber does not provide any. Even if it soaked up water like a sponge it would not effect the bouancy because it is not lighter than water. It is not an air chamber. What I am most curious about is what was inside that rear tail section. Somewhere I think Cammeron mentioned 2 glass spheres for bounancy. That might be the source of the problem. Although I would imagine those would or should be filled with high pressure air. The batteries would be under the deck they were sitting on. Because that's where they would have to be. A sudden implosion out of nowhere is almost merciful, but the sheer horror they must have experienced during that last 20 minutes with the thing just refusing to climb, all the warning lights going off, and the hull making those noises
like gunshots, thats about the most pant shitting way to go I can think of, knowing you're fucked, just waiting for it, wondering if every bang is going.to be the last. Literally every new piece of info is worse than the last. ght. Once they released the ballast it should have a shot up like a cork. They *might* have made it. Having to use the thrusters and still barely moving is awful, I’m convincing myself they set it up too heavy on purpose to try to speed up the descent, but just guessed and overdid it. A sudden implosion out of nowhere is almost merciful, but the sheer horror they must have experienced during that last 20 minutes with the thing just refusing to climb, all the warning lights going off, and the hull making those noises
like gunshots, thats about the most pant shitting way to go I can think of, knowing you're fucked, just waiting for it, wondering if every bang is going.to be the last. Literally every new piece of info is worse than the last. Ok this is actually much worse. See with a steel hull the steel has a cartain elasticity. You will hear creaking groaning and banging going down and coming up. And that is the steel storing energy under compression and releasing it as you ascend. As long as you have not exceeded the steels range of elasticity, which is well known and can be engineered for, its no big deal. It's the steel absorbing the pressure than releasing it. Composite materials don't work that way. At least not under compression. Every crack crackle and bang you hear is permanent damage to the composite. Every pop is your hull growing permanently weaker. Under tension carbon fiber will have some flex, such as with airplane wings. But you can't compress it. Because your cracking and breaking the bonding agent. Whatever resin composite they used. Now here's one other thing I'm surprised nobody has asked about. The sub itself is or should be trimmed to be neutrally bouant. And dropping the ballast and legs isn't going to give it that much positive bouancy. Some. But its not going to pop up like a cork. You've still got all the really heavy shit. The huge hunks of titanium. The batteries. The 5" think carbon fiber hull. They've got nowhere near enough thruster capacity to really lift it if it ends up trimmed heavy. Well they also had emergency lift balloons. They inflate the balloons and up they go. Right? Well inflating the balloons requires a reservoir of high pressure air. But you run into a problem 2.5 miles deep. As an example a Carbon Fiber wrapped SCBA tank of the sort every firefighter wears is a tank of very high pressure air. It's holding 444 cubic feet of air at 4500 psi. These are generally the highest pressure air tanks you will see in common use. At 13,000 feet under water the pressure in the tank is 4500 psi. The pressure outside the tank is around 4800 psi. See the problem? Yeah those lift balloons wont work at the bottom. And really wont even do shit until they can see daylight through the water. Great Safety System! Every new thing we find out just gets more and more horrifying. Can you imagine if they find any of the SD cards from the cameras?
I'm skeptical of the transcripts authenticity. But there likely is some element of what happened in it. We know the ballast and skids were jetisoned and the sub was at least attempting to climb. We know that from the Coast Guard. We do know that the sub did not develop a slow water leak into the main pressure vessel. Because yes that would have mulched everyone instantly. And no carbon fiber does not act like a sponge. Even if the carbon fiber was getting water penetration it would not impact the bouancy. Because the carbon fiber does not provide any. Even if it soaked up water like a sponge it would not effect the bouancy because it is not lighter than water. It is not an air chamber. What I am most curious about is what was inside that rear tail section. Somewhere I think Cammeron mentioned 2 glass spheres for bounancy. That might be the source of the problem. Although I would imagine those would or should be filled with high pressure air. The batteries would be under the deck they were sitting on. Because that's where they would have to be. A sudden implosion out of nowhere is almost merciful, but the sheer horror they must have experienced during that last 20 minutes with the thing just refusing to climb, all the warning lights going off, and the hull making those noises
I wish I could find the interview with the Honduras sub captain, the way he described it was scary as fuck, this guy has made two thousand dives, over ten thousand hours apparently, and he said he's never been so freaked out, this was only the second dive, and he said Titan was making noises like shotgun blasts even on the way up, and he said that was the scariest thing, it means the hull is storing energy as its being compressed, which means it loading up like a fucking bomb, titanium and steel groan but they don't make that banging noise
I wish I could find the interview with the Honduras sub captain, the way he described it was scary as fuck, this guy has made two thousand dives, over ten thousand hours apparently, and he said he's never been so freaked out, this was only the second dive, and he said Titan was making noises like shotgun blasts even on the way up, and he said that was the scariest thing, it means the hull is storing energy as its being compressed, which means it loading up like a fucking bomb, titanium and steel groan but they don't make that banging noise
