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Submarine Tech Reaches For Deep Ocean Record
disco_tracy writes "US Submarines CEO Bruce Jones and his team have just announced that they've developed new technology for a submersible that could take ocean explorers 36,000 feet deep, to the bottom of the Pacific's Mariana Trench."
"You can hire some giant squid to come over with a sledgehammer and just start bashing away on that glass sphere. And it won't hurt it."
wait vat?
another second coming? looks old enough. propellers? right out of the literature. looks like the refugeous move to mebotuh may be before 2025 after all.
That's really impressive.
FTA: "They call it the pressure boundary," said Raggio. "It's the boundary between you and instant death."
Okay then, where do I sign up...?
No sig today...
That'll teach you for clicking on a [blogspot|reddit|gawker|tumblr|go.gl|bit.ly|tinyurl|tiny.cc|is.gd|ow.ly|kxk.me|tr.im] link. You know they hurt.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
I am surprised no one said "Transparent Aluminum" yet. "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?!"
Irony? Yea, it's like goldy and bronzy, only it's made of iron!
That's almost 11 kilometres for the rest of the world, about 95% of it.
Where is this "Mariana Trench"? Is it deep?
That's not an article, that's a series of quotes.
The Trieste visited the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1960. It even says so right in the article: "return to..." i.e. we where there before, now we're going back.
What exactly is the record here ?
Or is it just another case of the editors not bothering to read the article OR research the basic facts ?
So I'm astonished that (they claim) they'll be able to make a FULL SPHERE of glass as opposed to some puny porthole.
Some questions:
A part (half?) of the sphere will have to be removed to allow people/things in and out (unlike "ecospheres") it can't be seamlessly sealed. Isn't that the most likely place of failure?
I assume there will have to be holes to allow power, cooling/heating, communications right? Another point of failure?
(Actually I read a story where some grad student had figured out a way of transmitting powe/communications THROUGH a submarine's metal hull using sonic waves.)
Where in the world will they test this thing to one and a quarter times the max. pressure? (And I thought engineering standards were to one and a half max.)
"We're going to repeat something that was already done 50 years ago, except we're be filing patents to stop anyone else doing it again. Click here to invest."
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
it's like a subordinate of the angel of death (where it gets it's money) but quite dreadful on it's own merits, which is usury for all of the unchosen, & their excess number of spawn. endless suffering, 'til debt do us part. as it was written, about several of the sacraments.
Yes my error. This isn't my grandfathers internet any more.
Divide a cake by zero. Is it still a cake?
Bad title considering that (as the article states in the first paragraph) Trieste made it to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean (Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench) in 1960 with a crew of two. I'd say they have the record and since you can't go deeper...not sure it can be broken unless the ocean changes depth there.
Trieste info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathyscaphe_Trieste
If you're in the DC area the Washington Navy Yard museum (open to the public) has Trieste hanging in the back (right next to Alvin -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSV_Alvin which was used to explore the Titanic). It's worth the trip if you're local or you've been to DC enough that you're not interested in going to the Air and Space museum again.
Museum visit info:
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/org8_Visit.htm
However
http://www.rayotek.com/
are the ones who actually "developed" the tech, these guys are just (potential) customers of Rayotek (seeing as this craft hasn't been built yet)
props for making subs out of plastic that goto 3,000ft and managing to sell them, but all credit for the tech that goes to 36,000 ft should go to Rayotek
now build it :)
Didn't Richard Branson already announce plans to visit the deepest point of all the oceans, so I presume he already has the technology to do this?
Choose your allies carefully, it is highly unlikely you will be held accountable for the actions of your enemies
BLUE HADES is not going to be happy about this.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
It would have been better had the simply built a drone craft, sent it to the bottom and THEN ANNOUNCED IT. That would have a dramatic impact. More importantly, it would enable a major push for them on new crafts.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
.. filled with lead.
Branson announcing plans and finding ways to execute them are two separate things. I'm sure he'll look at this too, but might be too expensive.
Insert
"Borosilicate glass, also known as soda-lime glass, has advantages over synthetics. "
Hmm, borosilicate isn't soda lime glass. The former, best known under the trade name Pyrex, is quite different than regular old soda-lime glass. Different melting points, very difference coefficient of thermal expansion, etc.
Looking back over the course of your lives, how many of those goldfish bowls you encountered were actually deep atmosphere exploratory craft sent out by piscene overlords?
You see one sitting on a shelf or counter somewhere and you just assume it's someone's pet and the owner put it there but unless you actually asked who it belonged to, can you be sure?
TFA: "Borosilicate glass, also known as soda-lime glass..." That's like saying "Bronze, also known as brass..." The two are compositionally quite different.
Pyrex (R) is Corning's trademark for the borosilicate type and it is commonly used for laboratory ware, oven windows and such. It was also used for the big 200 inch (a bit under 5 meters) mirror at Mt Palomar.
Soda lime glass is the more common type used for windows and beer bottles. You can quickly tell the two apart by looking edge-on into the piece, soda lime glass has a greenish cast.
Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden
I was going to say pshaw, *I* can provide "technology for a submersible that could take ocean explorers 36,000 feet deep".
It's called a rock, a big honking rock.
But metal will work too. Kudos to you sir!
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
In fact, at this point the entire editing process is far down the list of Slashdot annoyances: the freaking browser window keeps scrolling up several pages to expand the fucking parent post when I just want to middle- or right-click a link, leaving it up to me to find the post and sentence I was just reading. I swear I have never seen a more aggravating non-feature than this.
I mean come on it's 2011 for cripes sake. We went nearly that deep back in the 60's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathyscaphe_Trieste
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Actually, there was no cable. If you look at pictures of it, the submarine shaped structure was a buoyancy device similar to hot air balloons. They had ballast of iron pellets to go down. To ascend, they released the ballast. (The ballast was held by electromagnets which would drop the ballast in case of a power failure.) At the same there were no maneuvering motors so they were limited to going either up or down.
Please, start thinking in meters
Bad title considering that (as the article states in the first paragraph) Trieste made it to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean (Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench) in 1960 with a crew of two. I'd say they have the record and since you can't go deeper...not sure it can be broken unless the ocean changes depth there.
Well, if you bring a shovel you can dig a hole at the bottom of the trench, and then park there. This way your depth gauge read /just/ a little deeper, and one can claim a new record.
5/21/2011, be there or burn with the rats.
Holding at a record high rating of 184 since 4/18/2011. (Note that's higher than the 182 on 9/24/2001)
You need some eye bleach (NSFW)
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
The hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle "Nereus" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereus_(underwater_vehicle) and http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10076 uses ceramic ball technology for buoyancy, and it's been down in the Challenger Deep, so the idea of a ceramic ball withstanding the pressure is credible. However, Nereus uses a large number of little ceramic balls, not one large (people-holding) ceramic ball, so there is some testing to be done, I think!
From the article:
Rayotek CEO Bill Raggio: "You can hire some giant squid to come over with a sledgehammer and just start bashing away on that glass sphere. And it won't hurt it."
I'm sold. If there's anything I fear more while in my personal sub than sharks with head-mounted-lasers, it's hired squids wielding sledgehammers.
Also those homeless sperms whales that approach your sub at the intersection and want to squeegee your front porthole for spare change are annoying too.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
has some submarine patents related to it. Thank you, thank you!
It's gettin' nice and heavy...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Well, I expect it'll be exciting to someone. Personally, I'm betting they'll find either 'sand' or 'mud' at the bottom.
It'd be terrifying to go that deep but it's amazing that it might be possible.
"Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson