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A Canadian anti-submarine aircraft dropping sonobuoys reported hearing banging on one of them at 30 minute intervals!
The tourist submersible, with a crew and passenger compliment of five, takes four passengers on tours of the wreckage of the Titanic at a cost of $250,000 a head. The pilot of this particular cruise was the head of the company that operates said submersible. Normally there are two communications links between the mothership and the submersible: a voice/data link, and a location tracking link. Something happened at an hour and 45 minutes into Sunday's trip and both links stopped sending information simultaneously. The Coast Guard was contacted immediately.
The craft set off with 96 hours, or four days, of oxygen. Today is day three of that air supply. By reducing pressure, they can stretch it out a bit longer, but we don't know what happened or what sort of damage the craft might have sustained.
Rescuing the submersible is going to be tricky. If it's resting on the sea bed, that's below the operating limit of many of the U.S. Navy's remote-operated vehicles. The deeper-diving crafts may not be in the area, there's not much information on that right now. But there's one very problematic aspect, and that is of access. THERE IS NO HATCH. The people enter the craft, and then the cover is BOLTED ON. This makes the possibility of rescuing them with some sort of diving bell or bathyscaph almost impossible: it can't attach.
I don't know if this is going to end in a rescue or a recovery. But at least they have an idea as to the location, and that's huge progress.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/titanic-submersible-missing-searchers-heard-banging-1234774674/
Now, here's the terrifying part: the submersible was steered by a LOGITECH GAMEPAD CONTROLLER. A $30 part released to the market ten years ago and available on Amazon. Personally, if I'm involved in the design of a submersible, I'm absolutely screaming for the use of Mil-Spec components and controllers throughout it! There's one thing to be said for saving money by using COTS (commercial off the shelf components), but when you're doing something as dangerous as diving to the bottom of the sea and multiple people's lives depend on it, AND you're charging a quarter mil a head, I think you can afford something better than COTS!
I'm not saying the $30 controller is responsible. I'm saying the attitude to use such a device is unacceptable to me.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/submarine-missing-near-titanic-used-a-30-logitech-gamepad-for-steering/
The tourist submersible, with a crew and passenger compliment of five, takes four passengers on tours of the wreckage of the Titanic at a cost of $250,000 a head. The pilot of this particular cruise was the head of the company that operates said submersible. Normally there are two communications links between the mothership and the submersible: a voice/data link, and a location tracking link. Something happened at an hour and 45 minutes into Sunday's trip and both links stopped sending information simultaneously. The Coast Guard was contacted immediately.
The craft set off with 96 hours, or four days, of oxygen. Today is day three of that air supply. By reducing pressure, they can stretch it out a bit longer, but we don't know what happened or what sort of damage the craft might have sustained.
Rescuing the submersible is going to be tricky. If it's resting on the sea bed, that's below the operating limit of many of the U.S. Navy's remote-operated vehicles. The deeper-diving crafts may not be in the area, there's not much information on that right now. But there's one very problematic aspect, and that is of access. THERE IS NO HATCH. The people enter the craft, and then the cover is BOLTED ON. This makes the possibility of rescuing them with some sort of diving bell or bathyscaph almost impossible: it can't attach.
I don't know if this is going to end in a rescue or a recovery. But at least they have an idea as to the location, and that's huge progress.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/titanic-submersible-missing-searchers-heard-banging-1234774674/
Now, here's the terrifying part: the submersible was steered by a LOGITECH GAMEPAD CONTROLLER. A $30 part released to the market ten years ago and available on Amazon. Personally, if I'm involved in the design of a submersible, I'm absolutely screaming for the use of Mil-Spec components and controllers throughout it! There's one thing to be said for saving money by using COTS (commercial off the shelf components), but when you're doing something as dangerous as diving to the bottom of the sea and multiple people's lives depend on it, AND you're charging a quarter mil a head, I think you can afford something better than COTS!
I'm not saying the $30 controller is responsible. I'm saying the attitude to use such a device is unacceptable to me.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/06/submarine-missing-near-titanic-used-a-30-logitech-gamepad-for-steering/
