7 ms·

With any commercial fairly extreme engineering activity, is safety not going to suffer? Not thinking of any particular recent extreme (high) pressure endeavour

With any commercial fairly extreme engineering activity, is safety not going to suffer? Not thinking of any particular recent extreme (high) pressure endeavours.

samwillis 3y ago
The pressure differential for a sub at Titanic depth is almost 6,000psi, for a spacecraft in a vacuum it's 14.7psi. It's a very different problem.
- euroderf 3y ago
  But then again, don't most materials work better in compression than in tension ?
  - samwillis 3y ago
    To some extent but the stark difference in pressures makes it inherently a different problem. It's actually easer to build a balloon than a compressible can. 0.5mm hole in a space craft is a slow leek you can fill with epoxy (it's happened). The same in a sub at the depth of the Titanic, there is no fix and it's not a 0.5mm hole, it's an implosion.
    - euroderf 3y ago
      I hope this means we'll get a Chesley Bonestell -style space wheel in our lifetimes.
- imtringued 3y ago
  gravity is truly the weakest force
panick21_ 3y ago
This is just a recency bias thing. There are gigantic private cars, private ships, private planes and even private rockets used everyday all over the world. Not to mention gigantic mining equipment, huge oil platforms and so on and so on. Safety is always critical and commercial and non-commercial projects both can have safety issues or engineer something very safe.
- Incipient 3y ago
  Wouldn't really talk about aviation. We're still killing lots of people due to dodgy maintenance. Lack of understanding brought us popular hits such as the Hindenburg, and cars/ships/etc don't fail as catastrophically but they break all the time.
  - panick21_ 3y ago
    If you compare everything to a perfect world where nothing ever happens then nothing is gone measure up.
  - roarcher 3y ago
    Private aviation isn't special in terms of accidents either, though. There have been plenty of NASA spacecraft and military aircraft lost due to accidents, maintenance issues, and design flaws.
    - constantcrying 3y ago
      >Private aviation isn't special in terms of accidents either Yes it is, because for what it does it has an incredible safety record.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - roarcher 3y ago
        It's pretty obvious that I was comparing it to government/military aviation and not other forms of transportation, and that I was saying it was safe.
  - constantcrying 3y ago
    >Wouldn't really talk about aviation. But I would. Flying is incredibly safe for putting people in aluminium tubes kilometers above the surface of the earth and propelled by combusting fans of immense power. The idea that flying has become a low risk means of transportation is absolutely incredible and a real testament to safety standards working.
constantcrying 3y ago
>With any commercial fairly extreme engineering activity, is safety not going to suffer? Many, many commercial companies work on safety critical systems. You ensure safety through standards, testing and independence. Despite recent lapses, e.g. flying is still incredibly safe.

With any commercial fairly extreme engineering activity, is safety not going to suffer? Not thinking of any particular recent extreme (high) pressure endeavours.

samwillis 3y ago

The pressure differential for a sub at Titanic depth is almost 6,000psi, for a spacecraft in a vacuum it's 14.7psi. It's a very different problem.

euroderf 3y ago
But then again, don't most materials work better in compression than in tension ?
- samwillis 3y ago
  To some extent but the stark difference in pressures makes it inherently a different problem. It's actually easer to build a balloon than a compressible can. 0.5mm hole in a space craft is a slow leek you can fill with epoxy (it's happened). The same in a sub at the depth of the Titanic, there is no fix and it's not a 0.5mm hole, it's an implosion.
  - euroderf 3y ago
    I hope this means we'll get a Chesley Bonestell -style space wheel in our lifetimes.
imtringued 3y ago
gravity is truly the weakest force

panick21_ 3y ago

This is just a recency bias thing. There are gigantic private cars, private ships, private planes and even private rockets used everyday all over the world. Not to mention gigantic mining equipment, huge oil platforms and so on and so on. Safety is always critical and commercial and non-commercial projects both can have safety issues or engineer something very safe.

Incipient 3y ago
Wouldn't really talk about aviation. We're still killing lots of people due to dodgy maintenance. Lack of understanding brought us popular hits such as the Hindenburg, and cars/ships/etc don't fail as catastrophically but they break all the time.
- panick21_ 3y ago
  If you compare everything to a perfect world where nothing ever happens then nothing is gone measure up.
- roarcher 3y ago
  Private aviation isn't special in terms of accidents either, though. There have been plenty of NASA spacecraft and military aircraft lost due to accidents, maintenance issues, and design flaws.
  - constantcrying 3y ago
    >Private aviation isn't special in terms of accidents either Yes it is, because for what it does it has an incredible safety record.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - roarcher 3y ago
      It's pretty obvious that I was comparing it to government/military aviation and not other forms of transportation, and that I was saying it was safe.
- constantcrying 3y ago
  >Wouldn't really talk about aviation. But I would. Flying is incredibly safe for putting people in aluminium tubes kilometers above the surface of the earth and propelled by combusting fans of immense power. The idea that flying has become a low risk means of transportation is absolutely incredible and a real testament to safety standards working.

constantcrying 3y ago

>With any commercial fairly extreme engineering activity, is safety not going to suffer? Many, many commercial companies work on safety critical systems. You ensure safety through standards, testing and independence. Despite recent lapses, e.g. flying is still incredibly safe.