Inside the missing Titanic submersible: Cramped capsule, PlayStation controller and more (WATCH)
Authorities are currently searching for OceanGate’s 22ft carbon fiber and titanium vessel called the Titan after it vanished on Sunday, while taking a trip to view the Titanic wreckage
FollowThe curious case of the submersible that vanished on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean has rocked the world. Following its disappearance on Sunday while en-route to see the Titanic debris, OceanGate's 22-foot carbon fibre and titanium vessel, known as the 'Titan', is currently being sought after by authorities.
Believe it or not, the missing submersible that vanished with five people on board is controlled by a PlayStation controller and has only one window for explorers to peer out of. According to the Coastguard, individuals on board have 72 hours of oxygen left, and the carrier has a 'life support' of 96 hours. One crew member and four other passengers are thought to have been aboard Titan when it vanished in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North America.
The missing vessel, which is being searched for by the Canadian and Boston coast guards, belongs to the tour operator OceanGate Expeditions and the cost per ticket for the Titanic wreckage expedition is said to be $250,000.
Who is believed to be on board the submersible?
- Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British explorer and businessman who is the chairman of aircraft firm Action Aviation.
- Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, a trustee at the SETI Institute, and his son Suleman.
- It has been widely reported that Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate – the company that organised the mission – is on the craft.
- 73-year-old French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet is also thought to be on board, according to a Facebook post by Harding before the dive started.
All you need to know about the Titan submersible used for the Titanic wreckage expedition
The vessel's dimensions are 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm, and it can dive to a depth of 4,000 metres. The craft has four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters that enable it to move at a top speed of three knots while only weighing 10,432 kilogrammes.
It boasts a 4K Rayfin camera from Sub C Imaging, 2D sonar from Teledyne, 40,000 lumens of external illumination, and a laser scanner from 2G Robotics. In order to improve the amount of space available for the crew and equipment onboard, electronics and thruster control pods are situated outside the pressure hull.
Additionally, there is a lavatory on board, although because to its proximity to a window, it provides minimal privacy for visitors.
How is the Titan submersible controlled?
The vessel is navigated by text messages provided by a crew above water and is controlled by a strengthened Playstation controller. It lacks a GPS system. According to the website, Titan sends and receives text messages via a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system with the topside communications and tracking team. Multiple outside 4K cameras are streamed live on a big digital display, which also serves as a door to the aft equipment compartment.
What is the launch and recovery platform?
A recovery platform must be used to launch the Titan for its Titanic wreckage expedition because it includes tanks for submerging and resurfacing the ship. It implies that in coastal waters, no major support ship or crane is required.
In order to minimise any surface turbulence, the platform floods its flotation tanks with water for a controlled descent to a depth of 9.1 metres. The platform uses a proprietary motion-dampening flotation technology once submerged to stay connected to the surface while yet offering a solid underwater platform.
After each dive, the sub lands on the underwater platform, and the system is raised to the surface in about two minutes by pumping air into the ballast tanks. There is no way out once they reach the surface since the 17 bolts from the outside have trapped everyone within.
What is the vessel made of and by whom was it designed?
The Titan was constructed and designed with a titanium dome and end caps attached to an aerospace-grade carbon fibre hull. During the creation of the submersible, engineers from OceanGate collaborated with a group of engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Centre.
The corporation announced that Titan had been relocated towards the end of April in order to make final preparations for the 2023 Titanic Expedition. It has two titanium hemispheres and the largest manned submersible's filament-wound carbon fibre hull.
The access door for simple entry and egress is located on the forward dome hinges and has the widest viewport of any deep-sea manned submersible. To stop humidity from getting on the crew and to stop electrical ground faults, Titan includes a fibreglass hull insert.
It also has a real-time hull health monitoring (RTM) system, which makes it possible to accurately gauge the integrity of the structure and analyse the impacts of shifting pressure on the vessel as the submersible descends deeper. The onboard health analysis monitoring system is designed to give the pilot an early warning detection so they have time to stop the descent and safely land.
How long do the Titan dive sessions on Titanic wreckage expedition last?
Participants spend a total of 10 days at sea on a larger ship, participating in dives that can take up to 10 hours each. The company's CEO Stockton Rush told CBC in an interview last year that its subs could carry five people and could descend to a depth equivalent to that of the Titanic, which is half the depth of the ocean.
"There's no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on. Everything else is done with touch screens and computers, and so you really become part of the vehicle and everybody gets to know everyone pretty well," he said.
The company's 2023 excursions will be just the third to use the Titan; the sub made ten dives to the debris over several weeks in 2022. It is unknown exactly how many trips the Titan has made in total, but it is known that this is not the first one this year. The second Cyclops-class submersible is named Titan. Since 2015, OceanGate has operated in three oceans at approximately 500 metre depths.
Who owns OceanGate, the company that carries out the Titanic wreckage expedition?
The company was created in 2009 by CEO Stockton Rush, who is also in charge of the engineering and financial plans for the business. He is also a co-founder and trustee on the board of the OceanGate Foundation, a non-profit group that was established in 2012.
When Rush, then 19 years old, earned his DC-8 Type/Captain's rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981, he was the world's youngest jet transport-rated pilot. During his undergraduate summers, he worked as a DC-8 first officer for Overseas National Airways as a subcontractor of Saudi Arabian Airlines, flying out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Rush personally constructed an experimental Glasair III plane in 1989, and he still owns and flies it today. He finished a significantly altered Kittredge K-350 two-man submersible, in which he has already made more than 30 dives. In 1984, he graduated from Princeton University with a BSE in aerospace engineering, and in 1989, he earned an MBA from the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business.
