/sci/ - Science & Math

http://deepseachallenge.com/latest-news/cameron-to-walsh-on-record-8k-dive-youd-have-loved-it/

>Don,

>The 8000m dive went very well. Not an unqualified success, since the manip was balky and my push core sediment sample washed out on ascent because the sample door wouldn’t stow all the way, and because of the speed of the flow over the vehicle on ascent (5 knots average). But overall the vehicle performed like a champ. Plenty of power, and even though I lost one thruster, I still had 11 left, so the massive-redundancy approach worked. I never lost functionality. All lights and cameras worked. Sonar was balky… that’s going to need some work.

>Bottom time close to 5 hours, range of exploration about 1.5 km horizontal, and about 300m vertical along the trench wall, which was like the Grand Canyon, vertical faces interspersed with angled scree slopes. Dramatic terrain.

>The ponded sediment in the center of the trench was the finest I’ve ever seen. When the thrust-wash just barely kissed it, it formed silken veils undulating across the bottom, and then it would rise and hang in tendrils like ectoplasm. Not at all like the typical turbidite plains of abyssal depths. Where I dove the basin of ponded sediment was 1.5 km across, flat as a billiard table, and virtually featureless. It actually ended at a well-defined “beach” where the normal rocks and sediment commenced, terracing upward to the fault scarps. I explored up the scarps onto a plateau.

>The small exposed rock faces had large communities of white anemones about 1 foot long. Hanging gardens. It was a completely distinct micro-habitat from the flat basin.

What's strange is that Cameron's sub is a sister sub to Branson's. Same design, so it's weird that one of them passed pressure testing with flying colors and the other failed miserably. I wonder if one of them uses different materials?

I'd never get over it if the dome imploded on Branson while he was 6+ miles deep in the second trench on his 5 trench tour. It'd be a brutal way to die and the world needs visionaries like him.

>Unlike Branson's Virgin Oceanic, Cameron's Challenger Deep project has passed pressure tests; at a Penn State University lab, the team turned the dials to 16,000 psi and waited. Nothing. But at what cost? Nobody knows how much time or money Cameron has put into this submersible, about which he has been pretty tight-lipped since kicking off the design stage with a couple of sketches in 2003. Now, more two dozen people are working around the clock to prepare the sub for sea trials next April.

Meanwhile, James Cameron's sub seems to be performing flawlessly. Same basic design, I wonder what the difference is.

Here's a cutaway of James Cameron's commissioned sub, made by the same company. This one was done up by the graphics guy at a news site; the actual schematics aren't available. It's speculated that the passenger section is more of a cylinder with domed ends (like a pill) than a proper sphere, judging by a protuberance on the underbelly of the craft.

>>2527298
Here is a underwater-related picture for your sorrows

Twelve men have walked on the Moon. But there's been only one visit to the Challenger Deep. Soon, we'll go back. A next generation 'Deep Flight' submersible will take filmmaker James Cameron *seven miles* underwater into a pit of prehistoric ooze, made up of the decomposed remains of every sea creature ever to drift into the trench and perish.

On the first historic trip aboard the bathyscape trieste, one of the portholes cracked. It was so powerful that it sent loud reverberations through the spherical hull when it happened. Imagine the tension, not knowing whether the secondary layer of ultra-hard transparent sapphire would also crack, leading to catastrophic implosion. But it held, and the men returned alive.

Cameron's cutting edge sub will have...get this....a transparent cockpit made of ultra dense resin (see pic). That little porthole that nearly gave way on the Trieste? A few inches across. Advances in material tech since then make this possible, if not advisable.

Twelve men have walked on the Moon. But there's been only one visit to the Challenger Deep. Soon, we'll go back. A next generation 'Deep Flight' submersible will take filmmaker James Cameron *seven miles* underwater into a pit of prehistoric ooze, made up of the decomposed remains of every sea creature ever to drift into the trench and perish.

On the first historic trip, one of the portholes cracked. It was so powerful that it sent loud reverberations through the spherical hull when it happened. Imagine the tension, not knowing whether the secondary layer of ultra-hard transparent sapphire would also crack, leading to catastrophic implosion. But it held, and the men returned alive.

Here's some speculation about the new Challenger Deep explorer, based on the alleged involvement of the Deep Flight sub designers. A similar titanium crew cabin, but the pilots lay down, and the 'wings' assist in maneuverability.

The battery pack is a monster. With something like that I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they're using a centrifugal separator to produce oxygen from sea water instead of carrying air in compressed tanks.

>>2130091

>>We need a Carl Sagan of the ocean.

We have one and his name is James Cameron. Take that as you will.

>>2119153

Ooh, cool pic.

I assume you know about Cameron's plan to ride a Deep Flight highspeed sub into the Challenger Deep, right? Thoughts?

>>2096248

Do they? I recall reading an article about a nuclear sub that stated that hydrogen produced as a byproduct was used to supply a minisub which ran on a hydrogen fuel cell.

Pic: The design James Cameron intends to use to return to the Challenger Deep, a journey he'll film in 3D. Some of the footage will purportedly make it's way into Avatar 2.