OceanGate

OceanGate is a company who built a submarine out of a trash can, a cheap Xbox 360 controller, a bit of string and glue, and thought they could visit the Titanic wreckage without any issues. As you can imagine, this ended well and they returned home safely.

So what happened?

Back in 1985, the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered some 350-400 miles (575-635 km) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at a depth of 12,500 ft (3,800 m) under the sea. In order to get down there, you need a serious submarine able to withstand some 400 atmospheres (6000 PSI) of pressure and filled with serious state-of-the-art equipment in order to properly survive at those depths.

But like with any expensive project, someone will always come along and think they could do a better job by skimming some of the costs here and there... asking important questions like "we don't need ALL this oxygen, do we?" or "the walls don't need to be THAT thick, do they?" It kinda reminds me of the time when I thought "cars are so expensive; we should just make them out of wood to save some of the costs!".

Enter OceanGate: they built a submarine called the Titan which was touted as being "more cost efficient to mobilize than any other deep diving submersible" and built using "off-the-shelf components helped to streamline the construction". In other words: built by rednecks. So after thinning out a few things here, removing a few redundant features there, and suddenly they've turned a US$20 million submarine trip into one that costs US$250,000 a pop. What a deal! Why didn't anyone think of this before??

So what are some of the things that make the Titan so cost-effective? Well, whereas other submarines are all packed with important gizmos with very little wiggle room, the Titan took most of that out in order to give its passengers some breathing space. I mean, it's not like all that extra equipment was useful or anything!

Look at all the features of the Titan that make it one of the most unique submarines that ever was built using parts swiped from a construction site.

Also, if you want to take a dump, well, there's a bucket in the observation lounge. Just hope the submarine doesn't flip over.

Why do we need a fancy US$100,000 toilet system when we can get a bucket and a piss jug from my wife's clinic? ... Oh, yeah, she can just smuggle it out, don't worry about it.

Perhaps the most major change was swapping out expensive control equipment that may cost upwards of US$30,000, replacing it with a video game controller that cost US$30. They didn't even get the BEST video game controller, but a cheaper third-party controller from Logitech. Now sure, video game controllers are used for all kinds of military purposes, because basically anyone born since 1982 knows how to use a video game controller... but, well, let's compare the difference between how the military uses video game controllers and the way OceanGate did it:

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  ACTUAL MILITARY CONTROLLER: wired, top-tier first-party Xbox controller, other equipment can pick up the slack in case the controller breaks, good chance that there are some spares somewhere just in case, but ultimately mostly used for less critical vehicles like drones
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  OCEANGATE CONTROLLER: wireless (and thus will become useless if it loses power and/or bluetooth connectivity), cheap off-brand Logitech controller, no other equipment can pick up the slack, almost definitely no spares on board, and used as the primary means of locomotion for the submarine

Oh, and in order to seal the passengers and pilots into the Titan, they were literally bolted from the outside. There was no means of exiting the submarine from the inside. People who have gone down in the Titan have likened it to a suicide mission:

Totally safe! C'mon guys, what's the price of being on the edge of a frontier??

This was effectively one step above literally going to Lowes and getting some metal garbage cans and duct tape, then wrapping up the cans with the tape.

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"It's durable that a 16 year old can toss it!" Famous last words

Videos

Submarine expert explains why OceanGate's sub sucked. OceanGate whistleblower told everyone the sub sucked, but no one wanted to listen. Previous Video | Next Video

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Article of the Now June 28 & June 29, 2023
Preceded by Dextromethorphan	OceanGate	Succeeded by Futurama