Alvin Submersible Retired After 40 Years Work

An anonymous reader writes "The legendary deep-sea manned submersible Alvin is retiring after 40 years of scientific work. Alvin has taken 12,000 people on over 4,000 dives, helping to confirm plate tectonics and continental drift. It discovered hydrothermal vents, salvaged a hydrogen bomb from the Mediterranean Sea and explored the Titanic. Alvin will be replaced by a larger vehicle that will come into service in 2008."

Comments

Parts

[nounderscores]

I'd hate to think of how much it would cost to replace some of the heavily fatigued major components that have been compressed and decompressed so many times.

And who is willing to make another alvin hull?

Might be better to build 2 of the next generation once it is proven, or build 20 of the original alvins from scratch, than to try and extend the service life of a sub that's given more than its due.

Keep it going until the replacement?

[xanthines-R-yummy]

Why not keep it going until at least its replacement has been proven to work reliably? It would suck to keep Alvin in mothballs and then find out its replacement craps out after 2 months! Is there any reason not to keep it going until then? You know, kind of like Hubble and its replacement?

Re:Keep Both

[TAGmclaren]

It is useful for a lot of research. Even though it is not as good as a new one, why not keep in it action?

At a guess, after 40 years of the pressure it's been subject to it may be cheaper to replace that guarantee structural integrity.

Anyway, I hope "retire" is accurate and not a euphemism for scrap (which unfortunately happens sometimes). It deserves a pastures in a museum somewhere, at the very least.