You know that the Titan, a small submersible that went to see the Titanic wreck with five persons, including the founder of Titen, a billionaire, a Guinness World Record holder, a father and a son, has now disappeared to the bottom of the Atlantic sea.
Before talking a little deeper about this incident, let's talk about this small-size submersible also known as Titan.
Carbon fibre and titanium metal are used as materials to make the pressure vessel of the Titan submersible. Its dimensions are 670cm x 280cm x 250cm (22ft x 9.2ft x 8.3ft high) and its weight is 10,432 kg or 23 000 pounds (23,000 lbs). The maximum depth it can travel is considered to be 4,000 meters or 13,123 feet. The maximum capacity that can be carried by Titen submersible is 685 kg/ pounds (1,510 lbs). The crew capacity is five persons (1 pilot + 4 crew).
If we talk about its Life Support, the oxygen supply required for 96 hours for five adults here is also included. But this may change under environmental conditions at a depth of over 13,000ft. Also, Four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters are used as the propulsion system here.
If we talk about the integrated technology of this submersible, it includes below things:
- Sub C Imaging 4k Rayfin camera
- Teledyne 2D sonar
- 40 000 lumens of external light
- 2G Robotics laser scanner
- INS/USBL
- Real-Time Hull Health Monitoring System
There is something special about this Real Time Hull Health Monitoring System in this submersible. It is the pressure at the depth of 4000m/13,123ft where the wreckage of the Titanic was buried down. At this depth, the pressure is more than 400 like Atmospheres Pressure. The pressure at this depth is 6000 PSI or 413.685 bars. It's like having 35 well-grown elephants on your one shoulder at the same time.
In such pressure, the percentage of damage that can be done to the hull system of this sub is very high and this is to monitor the damage that can be done with a big pressure like 6000 PSI. If there is any damage detected on the hull of the sub, the pilot can stop the sub from submerging immediately.
There are several possible reasons for suspecting this accident.
1) Battery or equipment failureIn the military-level sub, we can see there is a nuclear reactor to supply power to the whole sub. Why? because it needs damn power under the sea with the pressure.
But this OceanGate miracle Titan Sub is powered by several small battery packs. The heating system, Communications, Lights, Propulsion system and Navigating system all the power required to work are provided by these batteries.
But if there is a catastrophic failure in the sub, all the controls of this sub will be lost by the pilot and the sub will sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. According to experts, the onboard crew will die sooner than dying from the loss of oxygen with the extreme cold of the water at such a depth because the heating system is not working.
2) Hull FailureAlthough the pressure is constantly monitored by the Real Time Hull Health Monitoring System, some people suspect that the pressure in the hull of 13,000ft has broken the wall of the hull, killed the crew and sunk the sub to the deep sea floor.
But this opinion is also somehow we can reject. The reason for that is that a Canadian P-3 Air craft had detected some underwater noise. According to them, this is considered to be a sound caused by the crew of the sub.
Now you guys think that how can a flying plane pick up the sounds of the sea in the dark? Two similar methods are used for this work.
1) Passive detection
It works like this, The sonobuoy(first used in the word war II) is dropped into the sea by the aircraft flying over the ocean. It is something like a rope that floats on the surface of the sea and stretches several parts towards the sea floor. After that, propellers, machinery and all other types of sounds coming from the sea floor are obtained by sending them.
2) Active detection
Active detection consists of a web-like part that extends to the seabed along with the antenna broom floating on the sea surface. All the data obtained by this is given to the detected vessel.
3) Onboard fireSince some of the parts used to make this sub are homemade, there has been a problem with their safety and quality. Due to some failure in the electrical system, there will be a fire in the sub and some people have expressed suspicion that the travelling crew has died.
But this opinion is also we can reject in some way. Because as I said before, a Canadian P-3 Air craft has detected some underwater noise. If the crew is burned to death due to an onboard fire, there is no possibility of noise coming from the area that Titan despaired.
By the way, I want to tell you that this submersible doesn't have any certificates that say it's safe from diving 13000ft. Also, OceanGate was warned multiple times by industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers of the potential for catastrophic problems. But OceanGate doesn't care about it. Look what happened today.
Lastly, It is a real question that why still a man can't invent a submarine that can dive into 13000ft in the deep sea. But some persons already claim that he will definitely land people safely on Mars and also invent helicopters that can fly to Mars, which is 323.18 million km away from the Earth.
Thanks for reading my article, I Hope to meet you with another article that can learn/know new things or technologies. Bye bye.
