Inside submarine that disappeared on Titanic expedition

The missing submarine that disappeared with five people on board is controlled by a PlayStation controller and has one window through which explorers can see out.

Authorities are currently searching for OceanGate’s 22ft carbon fiber and titanium vessel dubbed the Titan after it vanished on Sunday while making a trip to view the Titanic’s wreckage

This is based on the Coastguard’s estimate that those on board still have 72 hours of oxygen on board – the courier has a ‘life support’ of 96 hours.

Titan went missing off the North American coast in the Atlantic Ocean and was reported to have a crew member and four other passengers on board.

The Boston Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard are now both searching for the missing ship operated by travel company OceanGate Expeditions.

How big is the Titan submarine?

The dimensions of the ship are 670 cm x 280 cm x 250 cm and it can descend to a depth of 4,000 meters.

The ship weighs 10,432 kg and can sail at a maximum speed of three knots, which is created by four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters.

It features a Sub C Imaging 4k Rayfin camera, Teledyne 2D sonar, 40,000 lumen external light and a 2G Robotics laser scanner.

Electronics and thruster steering pods have been placed outside the pressure hull to make more space available for onboard crew and equipment.

It also has an onboard toilet, which offers guests little privacy as it is located right next to the window.

How is the Titan controlled?

The ship is controlled by an amplified Playstation controller, though it lacks a GPS system and is guided by text messages sent by a team above water.

According to the website, Titan communicates with the communications and tracking team at the top via text messages exchanged through a USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic system.

A large digital display streams a live feed from multiple external 4K cameras and doubles as a door to the rear equipment room.

What is the launch and recovery platform?

The Titan must be launched from a recovery platform, with tanks used to sink and resurface the ship.

It means that a large support vessel or crane is not necessary in coastal waters.

The platform floods its buoyancy tanks with water for a controlled descent to a depth of 9.1 meters to avoid surface turbulence.

Once submerged, the platform uses a patented motion-dampening buoyancy system to remain docked to the surface while still providing a stable underwater platform.

At the end of each dive, the submarine lands on the underwater platform and the entire system is raised to the surface in about two minutes by filling the ballast tanks with air.

Once they surface there is no way to get out as those inside are locked with 17 bolts from the outside.

Who designed the ship and what is it made of?

The Titan is built and designed with an aerospace-grade carbon fiber hull, combined with titanium end caps and a turret.

A team of engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center consulted with OceanGate engineers during the development of the submarine.

At the end of April, the company emphasized that it had moved Titan for final preparations for the Titanic Expedition in 2023.

It features a filament wound carbon fiber hull – the largest of any manned submersible – and two titanium hemispheres.

The forward dome hinges serve as an access hatch for easy entry and exit, which also has the largest viewing window of any deep-sea manned submarine.

Titan has a fiberglass hull insert to prevent condensation from dripping onto the crew and to eliminate electrical ground faults

It also features a real-time Hull Health Monitoring (RTM) system, meaning it is possible to analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submarine dives deeper, and to accurately assess the integrity of the structure .

The onboard health analysis monitoring system is intended to provide early warning to the pilot and allow sufficient time to stop the descent and return to the surface safely.

How long are the dive sessions?

Dives can last up to 10 hours each, with participants spending a total of 10 days at sea aboard a larger vessel.

In an interview last year, the company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, told CBC that their submarines hold five people and can go to the depths of the Titanic — which is half the depth of the ocean.

He said, ‘There are no switches and things to bump into, we have one button to turn it on.

“Everything else is done with touchscreens and computers, and that’s how you really become part of the vehicle and everyone gets to know everyone pretty well.”

The 2023 expeditions are only the third the company has conducted in the Titan, with the submarine making 10 dives to the wreck over several weeks in 2022.

It’s unclear exactly how many were completed by the Titan, but it’s clear that this journey isn’t the first this year.

Titan is the second in the series of Cyclops-class submarines. OceanGate has been active since 2015 in three oceans to a depth of almost 500 meters.

Who owns OceanGate?

CEO Stockton Rush founded the company in 2009 and oversees the financial and technical strategies for the company.

He is also a co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the OceanGate Foundation, which was launched in 2012 as a non-profit organization.

Rush was the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world when he earned his DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating from the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19.

He served as the first officer of the DC-8 during college summers, flying from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Overseas National Airways under a Saudi Arabian Airlines subcontract.

In 1989, Rush personally built an experimental aircraft Glasair III, which he still owns and flies. He completed a highly modified Kittredge K-350 two-man submarine, in which he has completed more than 30 dives to date.

He received his BSE in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 1984 and his MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1989.