/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3773988

>It may be challenging, but it's still much cheaper.

Mercifully so. This is why the Race to Inner Space is happening; Five private entities each building a cutting edge submersible out of the newest materials, with the newest battery chemistry and design principles (like hydrodynamic flight, or laser driven optical comms from the interior of a glass sphere to the sub's systems on the outside of it) all racing to be the first to return to the Challenger Deep after half a century of sending only robots.

Pic related, Richard Branson atop the Deep Flight Super Falcon, flagship of his new deep sea tourism company "Virgin Oceanic".

The hurdles in deep sea exploration are in materials tech, which is rapidly advancing in recent years, whereas the main hurdle in space exploration is the energy cost in escaping a gravity well. The materials barrier to deep sea labs is like a steep incline in terms of research progress. The energy cost of reaching orbit is more of a brick wall; Ongoing research does not meaningfully decrease it, only drastic steps like constructing a space elevator can solve it and not coincidentally that is also a materials problem.

>Branson's team, led by legendary submersible designer Graham Hawkes and chief pilot Chris Welsh, has been planning to take the Virgin Oceanic out for water tests as early as this summer, but, due to setbacks, no date has been confirmed. In early rounds of laboratory testing, the borosilicate viewing bubble through which the Oceanic's crew would peer out at the ocean floor cracked under just 2,200 pounds per square inch of pressure, about one-eighth of the 16,000 psi expected at Challenger Deep.

Looks like trouble for Virgin Oceanic.

>>3390112

>>Pitty no one wants to fund that endevour?

Except that the sub in that picture is made by a company recently bought by Richard Branson and rebranded "Virgin Oceanic". It will soon dive into the 5 deepest trenches on Earth, in a "race to inner space" with Triton submarines. Branson plans to fund a larger 6 passenger model that will take tourists to the challenger deep.

>>3356155

>>two dudes went to the challenger deep once

Yes, in an unpiloted Bathyscaphe. And the window broke, sending a shockwave through the vehicle that rang out loudly in the crew cabin and could be felt through the floor and walls. If the windows hadn't been double layered....

For some reason they decided to continue. They spent a short while on the bottom then came straight back up. We've only sent robots since.

Compare that to the number of times we've sent men to the moon.

The good news is, private industry is leading the way back to the Challenger Deep. This time in state of the art nanotech material submersibles that will actually cruise ten miles along the length of the trench before coming up, after which a larger sub capable of carrying six passengers will be built to carry paying tourists.

Pic related, Richard Branson and the Virgin Oceanic Deepflight Superfalcon. The other contender is Triton Subs' "Triton 36,000". While also technically impressive, I doubt they'll win the race to return men to the challenger deep. Branson simply has deeper pockets.

>>3274356

>>I have been browsing /sci/ for a long time. Would you like this base to become a reality?

Well, Richard Branson is getting into deep sea technology with Virgin Oceanic.

An undersea research base would be a good way to one-up him. Look at the pic. Look how smug and happy he is. A large, well equipped deep sea science station would make him peanut butthurt and jelly.

>>3261847

>>meh. it still can't reach the deepest parts of the ocean.

That's why you dock a full ocean depth submersible to it where the special forces minisub normally docks. Park mothership sub on edge of continental shelf, deploy submersible from there.

>>a bathyscape could. we need more bathyscapes.

Outdated technology. What you see in this photo is a submersible capable of going to the Challenger Deep like a bathyscape, but also capable of cruising for about ten miles along its floor, something a bathyscape cannot do.

Submersible tech has come a long, long way since the Trieste.

We live in an era when two private companies (Virgin Oceanic and Triton Submersibles) are locked in a deep sea equivalent of the space race, each claiming they will be the first to send a cutting edge submersible to the deepest trench on Earth.

Triton hopes to sell such capable submersibles to oceanographic research institutes and wealthy enthusiasts.

Richard Branson has declared his intention to turn Virgin Oceanic into a deep sea tourism company, with a redesigned sub housing multiple passengers and making routine 10 mile cruises along the bottom of the Challenger Deep, walls and seabed illuminated by floodlights, the sub doing acrobatic maneuvers along the winding canyon star wars style.

It is expected to be drastically more affordable than a Virgin Galactic ticket, for obvious reasons. It is a truly great time to be alive.

www.virginoceanic.com
www.race2innerspace.com

Richard F. Branson (The F stands for Fucking) is going to pilot a revolutionary 'flying sub' into the challenger deep. 7 miles down. It will have a panoramic *pure quartz crystal* dome cockpit, as it has amazing compressive strength. Very brittle though, hence the secondary cockpit, which mainly protects the quartz bubble from impact and improves the hydrodynamics of the design. Pic related, the most sophisticated submersible in existence, which will cruise ten miles along the bottom of the deepest oceanic canyon on Earth. My body is ready.