The bill would probably be even higher if FADOSS is needed for the rescue. For the lift system to be used at the Titanic wreck site, it would need to be welded onto a boat, which would require around 24 hours, The Washington Post reported, citing an anonymous Navy official.
They basically knew that this was a futile attempt but decided to spend millions in an effort to save people they knew were doomed.
People without healthcare insurance? We don’t have the money for that, and we need to cut Social Security…
Whether it’s foolish billionaires or 12 schoolboys trapped in a Thai cave, it’s human nature to try and save humans that are in a life and death situation.
We don’t stop to do an ROI calculation or ask who they voted for or what their bank account balance is or even if they’re a good or bad person. We just jump in and try to save them.
In many respects, I think it one of the better parts of human nature.
The US Navy detected an acoustic signature consistent with an implosion on Sunday in the general area where the Titanic-bound submersible was diving when it lost communication with its mother ship
They knew it was futile… but they’re only telling us now
I would think they would not want to devastate the families, in case it was something else that went boom, and the occupants were found alive. Recall the reports yesterday of tapping.
Awwww… right! something else imploded at the exactly time they lost contact with the submersible in the same area? Oh yeah… something else because these were Billionaire Families… if it was some single mother?
I’m sure the message would be exactly the same… we’re gonna do everything possible… Not
You know, I’m OK with the search mission, even knowing that the Navy heard something about the time the submersible lost contact.
Yes, it’s unlikely that they would find anything, but you need to confirm that what they heard was indeed the submersible imploding. And as soon as they did that, the mission ended.
In many ways, continuing on was very much akin to running a training exercise. Training needs to happen from time to time to keep everyone’s skills sharp. I’m also pretty sure the information about the noise was passed on to those running the mission. That information would certainly color the risks they were willing to take.
There’s also the PR side of things. Rescues like this are part of why the USCG exists. Yes, this was more complicated than the typical small boat capsizing a few miles out of port. But the job is still the same - get on scene, learn what you can, and try to save lives. If the USCG didn’t get involved in a rescue, people would start wondering if they would bother with smaller boat rescues. So they needed to go and try to help. Nothing less than that would be acceptable.
As to the money, it’s part of their budget. They have an annual budget of $10+ billion. I’m sure spending a few million on this particular mission is not a problem. Maybe they drop a training mission because this actual mission served the same purpose.
No there is no difference. This has been how our country has been operating for the last four decades. In the mix outsourcing factories to China.
All of it needs to completely stop. Not the rescue effort but the completely twisted value system. We have a sickness that needs to stop without so much as a question. Ignorance needs to be called out and slammed. We have had it in spades. Told what works when it never did in our economy.
May mean something. May mean nothing. It’s designed to resist immense pressure from outside pushing it in. It may not withstand minor pressures from inside pushing it out - as might happen in the midst of a violent implosion.
Personally, I’d suspect the carbon fiber. It’s been through multiple pressure cycles through all of it’s dives. Pressure vessels can only handle so many pressure cycles before they need to be retired. (Hint: that’s why many aircraft end up in the bone yard - they’ve hit their cycle limit.) And the pressure vessel is made up of two different materials - carbon fiber (for sure) and titanium (I think - or at least some other metal). Those different materials contract and expand differently as they go through pressure cycles. The interface between the two is a plausible failure point - especially as the cycle count increases.
Then again, the same could be said about plexiglass and titanium. So who knows.
Actually, it was certified to 1300 meters. The dive was 4,000 meters. But you’re right, it may mean nothing. It would seem odd that the plexiglas window would be cleanly punched out while other parts are coming in quite large chunks. It will be interesting to see what they figure out.
Not really a surprise. The Plexiglas was a single solid piece reinforced on its 360-degree diameter. So that porthole (so to speak) was well able to withstand pressure because of its shape–the pressure would be evenly distributed by the shape to all points around its diameter. As the opening was designed to resist outside pressure pushing in, when the hull failed, the inside pressure significently exceeded the outside pressure for a short period of time–and the entire unit was likely blown out of its frame as a single piece.
I cannot envision a scenario where the inside pressure would have exceeded the external pressure even for a moment. How would that work? The outside has (let’s say) 400 atmospheres, and a crack (or whatever) develops along the back. How does that translate to 500 atmospheres on the front, when there is no such pressure anywhere to drive it?
That is what I would figure. First reports of the situation of the wreckage, before it was raised, said that chunks of carbon fiber were packed into both titanium end caps. So, it would seem that the carbon hull broke, and the water rushing in drove everything toward the end caps.
That’s my thought. That plexiglass would be something like a foot or more thick, shaped like a cone with the small end in and the large end out. The pressure of the water pushes it against it’s conical seat in the titanium. So when the hull is breached and water comes into the chamber in a fraction of a second, that water will hit the inside of the window with some significant velocity, putting more pressure on the inside and popping the plexiglass out of it’s seat.
Those view ports are pretty well studied in other submersibles and should be fairly reliable. Not to say that it couldn’t be the failure point, of course. Just less likely than the carbon fiber of the bulk of the pressure chamber - which is unique to this submersible. And which fiber seems to have been recovered in multiple pieces, unlike the titanium end cap which appears to be intact, sans the plexi.
I am wrong here. The pieces I’ve seen are actually shrouds around the outside of the pressure vessel. The carbon fiber portion of the pressure vessel is most likely reduced to small bits, somewhat like broken tempered glass. At least according to sources I’ve read since my previous post.