/sci/ - Science & Math

>>5363392
>It would involve making a new pressure hull, that would be astronomical. Provide a link to these submarines, "airlock" does not mean it is taken out of the water, it just means they are attached.

I'm looking now. Here's the external pressure hull airlock they use currently (pic related). The new class of subs just internalizes it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_Deck_Shelter

>They would not be able to SURFACE in an emergency. It's all well that they could be recovered but if something serious went wrong there would not be time. There would also be no possibly of rescue should recovery be impossible.

They don't return to the surface. They return to the "mothership". It's like I am talking to a wall.

The Chinese government is financing the construction of neutral buoyancy deep "sea stations" powered by naval reactors, with exactly the airlock/minisub capability we've been discussing:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/09/china-underwater-mining-station