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Why is the capsule considered the only critical safety component? If everything else fails wouldn't it just fall to the bottom of the ocean? Even if it can sur
by weird-eye-issue 3y ago
Why is the capsule considered the only critical safety component?
If everything else fails wouldn't it just fall to the bottom of the ocean? Even if it can survive that depth that only sounds good on paper. Nobody could get to you.
- Out_of_Characte 3y agoBecause an implosion is a single point of failure leading to instant death. Anything else can be salvaged by staying calm and using one of multiple ways to resurface.
- cheekibreeki2 3y agoSubs will always have 1000 ways to kill you and most of them are catastrophic. You're pretty much boned if anything goes wrong especially with so few crew members, lack of compartments, backup propulsion, etc.
- weird-eye-issue 3y agoReally? Anything else can just be magically salvaged? I'm not sure there is that much room for error 2 miles below the surface
- RC_ITR 3y agoThey are visiting a debris field. There is a much more than zero chance they are stuck on something.
- lb1lf 3y agoThe capsule itself is positively buoyant. As long as it can jettison the ballast (and is not tangled up in something on the seabed, say, the Titanic), it will come to the surface.
- ceejayoz 3y agoAnd the ballast is held on via electromagnets. Lose (or deliberately cut) power, you're going up.
- barelyauser 3y agoIsn't this like a huge waste of energy?
- adql 3y agoIt's nothing compared to amount of power to the engines, you don't need kilowatts to "just" hold a ballast
- andruby 3y agoI don't think weight is a huge issue for submarines (unlike say airplanes), so taking a few batteries along should be fine. (I don't know anything about subs) you could even store a few batteries in the ballast.
- nvusuvu 3y agoClear tradeoff for safety.
- ceejayoz 3y agoBetween "waste some power on a magnet" and "we're permanently stuck on the bottom of the ocean about to run out of air", I know which one I'd pick.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoThere's a difference between a "waste of energy" and a failsafe emergency system that happens to use a lot of energy.
- tristanb 3y agoI don't think it is on this "sub". I believe I read they used a material that degraded over time in water.
- weird-eye-issue 3y agoRight, so you need the ballast. Which is not inherently part of the capsule. Which proves my point.
- lb1lf 3y agoWell, you need to be able to change the weight of the capsule somehow, otherwise you'd be stuck bobbing at the surface. (Or at the seabed). The puzzling bit, from what I have gathered, is that the ballast is not fail safe.
- RC_ITR 3y agoSure, but they can also incorrectly steer themselves into wreckage that causes them to be stuck...