06/26/2023
The science that put the Titan submersible at risk of implosion
"It would have been immediate," said David Mearns, an expert on sea rescues who lost two friends in the implosion of OceanGate's Titan submersible. "Literally in milliseconds, and the men would have had no idea what was happening." It is not clear how deep Titan was when it was crushed by water pressure during a descent toward the wreck of the Titanic. But, there has been much discussion about how the design of the craft and the use of carbon fiber in its construction may have led to the disaster.
■Class discussion: Titan was designed and built to hold more people, including some paying to dive to the Titanic wreck. Is such “adventure tourism” a bad idea? How about people paying to take rides into space? A remotely controlled submersible found the Titan wreckage. Does it make more sense to use such robots instead of manned submersibles? Is there anything a manned submersible can do that a robot craft can’t do? Have we learned more about the universe from unmanned space vehicles or manned spacecraft?