Tourist submarine taking people to the site of the Titanic wreck has gone missing

That might be true. But why? Is it because a carbon fiber sub hadn't been built before, and so they would be reluctant to certify a new material?

Or is there something about carbon fiber that makes it more likely to break than another material like steel or titanium?

Some reports say that the Titan had gone to the Titanic 13 times. Other reports say 3 times.

Maybe it went 13 times total, but only 3 times with paying passengers.

Stockton seems as slimey as they come. He was being sued by a couple after they advanced him $200,000 for a trip and nothing ever happened because of multiple delays including a submersible malfunction. They are suing him. He was making more than a million dollars on this trip but he could not even have his gaming console wired in. How many shortcuts did he take? I can't believe he went down in that craft knowing how crappy it was.

en.wikipedia.org

2023 Titan submersible incident

On 18 June 2023, Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate, disappeared in international waters in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately 400 nautical miles (740 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The submersible, c...

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"The Titan made its first dive to the Titanic in July 2021.[33] In total, OceanGate undertook six dives to Titanic in 2021 and seven in 2022.[34]"

Regardless, comparing a submersible that has successfully visited to Titanic already any number of times to jumping off a building with a sheet is absurd.

I don't think Stockton was slimey, just delusional. He convinced himself that his creation was a good one.

Stockton reminds me of the guy who in 1912 jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing a winged flying suit, because he thought he would be able to float down to the ground. That guy also believed 100% in the contraption that he made. Just like Stockton he trusted his life with it.

So what happened with the Eiffel Tower flying guy? Splat! The first ever video recorded death in history. So he did end up making history, just not in the way he wanted to.

allthatsinteresting.com

The Sad Story Of The Inventor Who Died Testing His Parachute At The Eiffel Tower

Gabe Paoletti

On February 4, 1912, after saying a cheerful "À bientôt", Franz Reichelt jumped from his 187-foot-high stage. But the parachute folded in around him and he quickly plummeted to the ground.

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It has to do with putting holes in a carbon fiber structure and what you use to reinforce and bond with said reinforcing material (e.g. steel, titanium). Extreme pressure at different temperatures will tend to deform different materials at different rates. The Titan was a tube of carbon fiber with hemispherical titanium ends. When going to cold depths under extreme pressure, the carbon fiber will microscopically deform differently than the titanium its bonded with, leading to the bond between the titanium and carbon fiber to fail over time. The material itself is not at severe risk of failure, it's the point where its bonded to a different material.

So then why didn't he make the sub 100% carbon fiber, instead of making it out of two materials?

Do you always need the most obvious things spoon fed to you?

Again, the need to put holes in the hull, allowing access to mechanical systems outside the hull (plus people entering and exiting the hull) mean it couldn't just be a carbon fiber egg.

You didn't understand my question. It obviously can't be an egg with no openings.

But he attached titanium on the ends of the carbon fiber tube. Why not make the ends out of carbon fiber too?

It's far easier/stronger to put the holes through the titanium (or steel, perhaps) than through the carbon fiber. He still used a wireless guidance system, but he wanted a window and, obviously, a hatch. There are some making submersibles entirely from acrylic, which apparently passes muster with James Cameron for whatever reason.

Even if the whole thing was carbon fiber, that composite material is problematic in that it is very rigid and does not sustain repeated changes in pressure extremes as well as titanium and other metals. Carbon fiber under those repeated stresses is more prone to failure due to delamination. and microscopic fracturing and delamination within the carbon composite would probably go undetected,

Reportedly it was used in this application because it is much lighter than titanium, making these kinds of trips much more feasible and probably less expensive.

100%. And the fact that military tactics, and the underlying understanding that in war there will be and are human casualty/loss of life in order to "succeed", are completely different from voluntary deep sea craft diving to go see a shipwreck that really has no bearing on the fate of society.

So the fact this guy was referencing an army general as his inspiration for "pushing boundaries" should have been the biggest red flag imaginable. All this "he was a great man" f-ing nonsense - he's in the same lunatic-chest along side Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann et al.

You would have had to put me in a straight-jacket and put me under general anesthetic to have got me into that thing.

Carbon fiber does not fatigue the way that metals do, though.

It is a much stronger material than most realize. There is a reason that it is used in aircraft so often. It is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. It has an incredibly high weight-to-strength ratio.

What is funky, and was pointed out earlier, there was more than likely some issue with titanium caps. That seems weird to me. Everything Stockton Rush did seems weird to me. He really seemed to be someone that had no regard for safety. I wouldn't have paid a single cent to go down in that thing.

You being afraid of risk doesn't make him a lunatic.

If no one ever took risks we'd still be living in caves.

Then why was it not made public?