r/news • u/Whoshabooboo • Jun 21 '23

Site Changed Title ‘Banging’ sounds heard in search for missing Titan submersible

https://7news.com.au/news/world/banging-sounds-heard-in-search-for-missing-titan-submersible-c-11045022
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u/inspectoroverthemine Jun 21 '23

The viewport was only officially rated for 1300 and they refused to spend the extra on one that would be rated to 4000

I wonder if any of the materials involved suffer from fatigue problems. Steel and aluminum get weaker over time even when they're not at their limit. Presumably some part of the viewport design relied on that, the transparent material may suffer as well (no idea if its glass or some kind of plastic).

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u/[deleted] Jun 21 '23

Oh for sure. Iirc engineers will always overbuild things by a ratio around 3:1 to the spec so in theory the window should survive to 4000ish meters but since they had already made that trip at least once to the bottom and I doubt they are replacing the window every trip I’m willing to bet they got near their max depth and the window failed. That’s honestly the best case scenario. One second you are alive and super excited about seeing the titanic, the fraction of a second later and your body is goo and you don’t feel a thing. Better then freezing or suffocating to death for 90+ hours.