Richard Branson Announces Virgin Oceanic Submarine

It's the tripnaut! writes "Richard Branson has just revealed that he intends to build a vessel capable of exploring some of the deepest parts of the oceans around the world. The article further states: 'The sub, which was designed by Graham Hawkes, weighs 8,000 lbs and is made of carbon fiber and titanium. It has an operating depth of 37,000 ft and can operate for 24 hours unaided.'"

Comments

Oh, Sir. Branson

[yeshuawatso]

Sir. Branson, is there anything in science fiction you won't waste your billions trying to make into a commercial reality?

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[inKubus]

Sir Branson: *waving excitedly* "Next stop, the CENTER of the EARTH!"

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Quite frankly, you may think what you want of Branson's endeavours, but at least he's trying to achieve new and exciting things. He'd make more money setting up a law firm, a hedge fund, or selling razors with 6 blades, but he pegs himself as a visionary and that's what visionaries do.

I say the world is better off with a Branson that Yet Another Businessperson [TM]...

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[Z00L00K]

I agree, what he does is to keep a high profile with stunts like these, but it really improves the brand when he is involved in things that is more than just the usual TV commercial. Anyone can do a CGI with a fantasy these days using a pile of money, but putting that money into an event where you are actually achieving something real - or make a difference - then you do both your brand and the others involved a favor.

The submarine will hopefully provide additional knowledge.

"There are no failures, just more data".

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[Kozz]

Dear SLASHDOT:
What the FUCK have you done to the layout, styles and scripting on this god-forsaken site? I've tried both FF4 and IE8, but have the same problems:

• * hyperlinks in comments don't work, as if they've got an {onclick="return false} in them.
• * comments frequently do NOT show their moderation scores, and I have to keep opening ancestor comments until the scores are revealed.
• * The right-click context menu doesn't come up in FF4 unless I DOUBLE-RIGHTCLICK.
• * Sometimes when clicking on a comment (to expand from abbreviated mode), parent comments will be opened, and my window content scrolls, causing me to lose the original comment I was trying to read.
• * These <li> elements aren't displaying their bullet-points when previewing comments (and probably not after posting, either), so I've gotta stuff asterisks in front of each of them.

To be honest, I'm not one of those who has been carping about the new layout and design of Slashdot. I'm actually fine with that. But it's got to fucking work. Otherwise I'm ... oh fuck it. I'll probably come back anyhow. But you should know what a shitty job you've done of QA.

Moderators: us low-UID folks get a pass to rant once a year or so, don't we? Yeah, it's a bit vitriolic, but it's all truth.

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[Apocros]

Spot on for at least the first four points... seems like the break happened fairly recently too (this week?).

Re:Oh, Sir. Branson

[Hatta]

Mark Slashdot.org as "Untrusted" in NoScript. Set your discussion style to "classic" in your user preferences. That will fix everything but the bullet point issue.

Re:37,000 feet deep?

[vivian]

Being a pressure hull, it will be at 1 atmosphere internally - there is no decompression for the occupants to worry about, which is the whole point of having a pressure hull.

Last I checked, 37000 is > 35838 feet, which is the actual deepest point in the ocean, so the sub is already overrated for even the deepest depth - let alone the rest of the ocean which is much much shallower - with an average depth of about 13000 ft.

The wreck of the titanic is at only 12600ft. I'd definitely pay a decent sum to go see that thing in a sub if the sub had a decent view-port you could look out of.

Re:37,000 feet deep?

[FrankSchwab]

To add to that, the portholes would not be as intresting as they would have to be rediculously thick so you'd see most things through a video camera and a screen.

Too bad then that it has such a large viewing dome: http://www.virginoceanic.com/vehicles/submersible/

Dome

[maroberts]

It's my impression that Branson has taken over the sponsorship/ funding and involvement for a project called Deep Flight Challenger started by Steve Fossett (Rest In Pieces) I'm still trying to work out if the sub will actually have a large see through dome, or whether that will be replaced by some other material and rely on cameras for external visibility. If it is going to have a large see through area, what the hell is it made of?

Re:37,000 feet deep?

[JWSmythe]

  Even video cameras need to be protected from the water. :) That thick glass (or glass like substance) would be the same, regardless if it were for your eyeballs, or for a camera. At least with a video camera, it could be recorded. "I saw a giant squid monster" means nothing if you say it. If you provide authenticated video, then it's fact (although likely to be debunked by "experts" all over the Internet).

    I still have a thing against getting squished by thousands of pounds of pressure. I'd rather watch the screen from somewhere comfortable naturally around 1 atm. :)

Re:Trieste / Mariana Trench / January 1960

[oenone.ablaze]

Yeah, to clarify for everyone: this is notable because it's the first mobile submersible that can operate at those depths—the Trieste brought two passengers to the Challenger Deep, but it was only capable of descent and ascent, not powered lateral movement.

Dumbing down?

[jandersen]

Well done, mr Branson! One of the few who dare, nowadays.

But, what is it that always tends to make American articles appear so downright stupid? Why are numbers and sizes always dumbed down to something you hope the average Joe Sixpack might get his head around? Like "8000 pounds" rather than "4t"? Or "37,000 ft"? Or, in other articles, numbers like "100,000 million billion" - is it just to make it sound impressive? If so, it doesn't work, it just sounds like toddler-talk. I would expect people who are able to understand subjects involving big numbers, are also able to understand the meaning of prefixes like "k", "M" and "G", and even (shudder) metric units.

And, of course, I can understand feet and pounds; it's just that every time it feels like yet another example of America wanting to show everybody that they are too bloody high and mighty to follow the lead of others. No, I don't hate America, and I do know that Americans are good and decent people; but then, why not show off all those good sides you guys have?

Re:37,000 feet deep?

[hat_eater]

OMFG someone has been plunging my house into the abyss while I slept! Every night through my ENTIRE LIFE!!1!

No seamen please

[coinreturn]

A virgin full of seamen, please!

Newspaper Headline

[DG]

The headline I saw in a local paper about this story was - and I'm not making this up - "Virgin Penetrates Deep".

That, right there, makes this story full of win.

DG