Titan's lack of oxygen 'sounds' heard from water: 5 hours left - Titan submarine

 

One of the best places that brings together the disciplines of Maritime Archeology and Marine Biology is the shipwrecks many years ago. Because of this things like watching them and conducting research on them started not yesterday. 

Ocean Gate is a private company that facilitates such expeditions. The small submarine they created called Titan (of course these are called Submersible) has now disappeared in the deep sea with 5 people on board. They were a group that went to see the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. At this time, the famous Titanic is in the deep sea at about 13,000 feet, about 400 miles away from the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean. That means about 4 km deep in the sea.

The Titan submarine is a vessel about 22 feet long. It can carry a maximum of 5 people at a time along with the pilot. It has a maximum speed of 5.6 km per hour. It is driven by 4 electric thrusters (Electric Thrusters) that operate on battery power. There is no control panel or steering wheel to control them. Instead, a Bluetooth controller is placed. (It's a really old Logitech gaming controller) There are several of these. Ocen Gate says that it gives tourists the opportunity to see under the sea from any angle they like.

There is no control panel and there is no seating facility for anyone to travel inside. You have to sit on the floor. It's like sitting on the floor in a mini van. When the 5 sit down, the space runs out. The only seat available is the toilet seat. It is also one of the smallest size.

  The outer shell of the submarine is made of thick carbon fiber (5 inches). Only the hemispherical parts on both sides are made of titanium. These walls can withstand the pressure of 4000 meters underwater. There are sonar and radar sensors. So you can avoid obstacles even in the dark. There are cameras installed outside and lights to illuminate even the deep sea. A thick circular glass with a diameter of one foot is also provided for tourists to look outside.

The companies issuing them have not provided the necessary warranty for this design. The reason is that Ocean Gate is not interested in the process of acquiring them. According to them, such warranties cannot guarantee the safety of the passengers in a submarine. They are of the opinion that they provide only benchmarks about the performance of the submarine. Anyway, if you are going to see the Titanic from this titan submarine, you will be charged $250,000. The Ocean Gate company says that more than a million dollars is spent on one trip. However, in addition to that payment, you also need to sign an agreement. It is said that the word "death" is mentioned in 3 places on the first page of that agreement.

After paying the money and signing the contract, a ship will take the Titanic to the relevant area of the North Atlantic Ocean where it was sunk. You have to board the submarine from there. After all 5 passengers boarded, the crew on the ship closed the submarine and applied bolts from the outside. This means that those inside cannot come out until the outer crew opens the door after completing the trip to the surface of the sea.

  When the doors are sealed, the oxygen inside is only enough for 5 people for 96 hours. If you are in trouble, you can send a message to the ship on the surface of the sea. Communication is done through sonar signals. With the help of Transponder and Transceiver, the message exchange is done in the form of SMS. In these, only the position of the submarine and the current situation can be specified (Data Space).

In addition, if there is any damage to the outer walls of the submarine, the ship will be notified by sensors. Then the submarine is made to come to the surface of the sea automatically. For that purpose, while designing the submarine, it has been concerned about its buoyancy. It is then possible to release additional burdens and get this boost.

However, since one hour and 45 minutes after the launch of the Titan submarine, which was launched with 5 people to visit the Titanic ship on the last 18th at around 5.30 pm Sri Lanka time, no signal has been released until now. Ocean Gate operators have not been able to locate the submarine even through sensors. They took steps to inform the authorities including the Canadian Coast Guard after 6 hours. Along with them and the US Navy, several non-governmental organizations have started search operations.

Search operations have been completed in an area of more than 10,000 square miles of sea surface. Because even if the communication is interrupted in some way, the submarine may come to the surface of the sea, so the inspection of the sea surface is also important. Apart from that, the rescue teams are on alert using sonar buoys in the hope that any signal will be released from the submarine. If it is a signal coming from the submarine, but a reflection of a sonar or radar signal sent from the surface of the sea, the chances of receiving it are very low. One reason for that is the depth of the submarine.Among them, there is no way that there is enough technology to receive a signal reflected from the Titan submarine.

  Also, we need to understand that it is impossible for people to go to the 13,000 feet deep sea and search for the submarine. It is very risky to carry out such an operation without knowing the exact location of the submarine. Therefore, a robot has been used for exploration. There has been no good news so far. But the US Navy's Boeing P-8 Poseidon (Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft - currently the world's most technologically advanced maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft) has detected several signals issued every 30 minutes. It is suspected that these may be a sound signal from inside the submarine hitting its wall. The rescue teams say that these signals may be emitted frequently to conserve oxygen.

According to the signal, the submarine is at the bottom of the sea where the Titanic is. That means 13,000 feet at the bottom of the sea. (When you think of such a group of people getting stuck and hitting the walls of the submarine 🤐)

Some analysts say that it is not the right signal. But even if it is correct, the most successful rescue operation carried out at the bottom of the sea so far in history has only been carried out at a depth of 1575 feet. It was the 1973 operation to rescue a Canadian submarine. It is the opinion of many that there is no ship or any other submarine that can lift the Titan submarine with 4 km of strong cables and 10 tons of weight. The highly capable NATO's Submarine Rescue System (NSRS) only has submarines that can travel by remote control up to a distance of 2037 feet.

According to rescue teams, the worst that could happen is that the hull of the submarine is damaged and destroyed due to the high pressure under the sea. Or they say that the submarine could have crashed into the still Titanic without being able to control it.

The Titan submarine has made about 50 test dives. Last year too, Titanic toured with tourists despite the obstacles. (See a YouTube video about it in the comments) But damage to the submarine's electrical system had been reported during those research trips. Even so, they managed to come back to the surface of the sea. The total travel time of the Titanic was only 2 hours and 30 minutes. Therefore, according to the signals received, they have gone far safely. Therefore, if the battery power is exhausted or if the electrical system is damaged, no one has submarines or equipment that can travel that far to save them if they release themselves from buoyancy and do not come to the surface of the sea even half a distance.

However, their 96 hours will end tomorrow at 5.30 pm. If something doesn't happen before that, probably the story of the Titanic submarine will be added to world history as a dark memory like the Titanic.

The 5 trapped people are Ocean Gate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Henry Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.