The death of the bathyscaphe “Titan”, which the whole world watched online, once again reminded us that God should not pull his beard. Even for a lot of money. And if you are already going, you must first study the sopromat and accept it as “Our Father”.
Billionaire Stockton Rush, co-owner of OceanGate, sparked the idea of marine tourism. And deep water. To do this, the development of the deep-sea bath “Titan” began ten years ago. Tourists were to be taken to the sunken Titanic, the wreckage of which is located at a depth of 3800 meters. The woman is also partly guilty, of course. Since the late ’80s, Rush has been married to the great-grandson of Isidor and Ida Straus, who died in the Titanic crash. And before that, he really wanted to be a pilot and graduated from Princeton in aerospace technology.
His wife, of course, took the position of communications director at OceanGate. They tried to price the tickets for the bath tub, which had not yet been created, at the price of a seat in the Titanic suite, which was purchased by millionaire Alfred Vanderbilt for $105,129 with slight inflation adjustment.
Already at this time, God has been pulled from his beard several times, but this has not stopped the developers and enthusiasts. We do not know if they are receiving any signals from above.
But we know that billionaires often suffer from fantasy, and we believe that anything is possible for money. Including spitting on the rules.
The case (the project was developed in partnership with the University of California) for some reason decided to make a composite of carbon fiber and titanium. Although by that time there was already successful experience in creating deep-sea vehicles from “normal materials”. Of course, we are talking about five Mir submarines of the Institute of Oceanology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, two of which have a certified immersion depth of up to 6 km and two up to 2 km (appropriate tests have been carried out). ). With the help of Mir devices, two films were shot in the 1990s, one of which was Cameron’s Oscar-winning Titanic. The technical documentation of these bath utensils was prepared in the USSR, but they were built in Finland by Rauma-Repola. Like the support ship, the famous Academician Mstislav Keldysh, which was actively used by the USSR Academy of Sciences for all kinds of deep-sea research.
Already in development, OceanGate enthusiasts have been warned that the strength of the fiberglass apparatus will decrease after each dive. “Don’t worry,” the curious said, and they pulled God’s beard again. A year before his death in the bathtub (and with his son), Rush once said:
“Security is to some extent a waste of time. If you want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, drive or get into a car. Just don’t do anything.”
“Titan” differed from the Soviet “Mir” not only in materials of manufacture. It was noticeably larger, designed for a crew of five (there were three on the Mir), they abandoned the spherical hulls used in almost all deep-sea craft at the time of its creation, and the hulls, as a rule, were made of pure titanium. . A large internal volume meant, among other things, a sharp increase in external pressure on the hull.
The ship’s 12.7-centimetre-thick hull was subjected to repeated stresses in about two dozen dives, each of which left microcracks in its structure. And while the OceanGate website advertises the Titan’s carbon fiber design with titanium end caps rated for four kilometers, experts know that carbon composites have a limited lifespan, especially when subjected to extreme stress and causing stress concentrations.
While relatively new materials – composites – become “tired” and somewhat unusable from other materials, experience testing their condition is still lacking. When asked to periodically perform “non-destructive tests” such as ultrasonic scanning, OceanGate refused each time. With excuses like “Documentation and licensing are the enemies of all innovation”. We heard that somewhere, right?
The porthole of the submarine passed the test only to a depth of 1300 meters. The certification of the device as a whole has never been done. They say all these are empty formalities. Engineers who disagreed with such a formulation of the question were simply fired. “I am the boss – you are an idiot” is a well-known principle.
But as it is, everything is familiar. Even when, after several dives, the experts determined the fatigue of the material and recommended reducing the maximum diving depth, the project was not abandoned (the proposed new depth could not reach the Titanic by almost a kilometer), it limited itself to individual improvements.
The first successful dive aboard the Titanic was in 2021, with Stockton Rush personally participating. Then there were several more of the same dives, everyone continued to pull God by the beard. Rush seemed to be watching his future death place. Flattened fragments of the bathyscaphe have now been found 500 meters from the Titanic.
Therefore, when someone tells you that all these SNIPs and GOSTs are obsolete and hinder progress, remind them of Titan and Titanic. Both died because of the arrogance of those who ruled them. And yes, here’s one more thing … It is not necessary to draw a beard. You never know.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.