Technology

Last year, CBS correspondent David Pogue commented on the sub’s “jerry-rigged” design before

A shame that this keeps getting brought up. Yeah, some of the stuff was super-basic. But the absolutely key component, ie, the pressure vessel itself, was anything but jerry-rigged.

That said, I'm really curious how the pressure vessel failed. My random guess is that the viewport glass (which may not have been glass at all) cracked and then ruptured. I know that one of the vessels that has been down to the Mariana Trench experienced glass cracking; that was definitely a sweaty palms moment for the crew.

Also, given that the hatch had to be bolted shut from the outside, I've been wondering whether they need to be set to specific torque values each time. Meaning, what would happen if they were unevenly torqued down? My bet is you'd get uneven warping where the hatch mates to the vessel cylinder. Even if the warping is microscopic at sea level, the stress differential would get magnified at depth.

It's also got to be pretty rattling to folks like David Pogue who have already been passengers. I've heard David himself say he's still trying to process it all. But there's got to be an ample heaping dose of "holy shit, that could have been me if the dice had fallen differently". It's already started to bother me that he keeps getting pulled into interviews; the first one was fine, but to keep pressing him with "what are your thoughts/feelings"… I'd rather buy him a beer and talk about literally anything else, so he can have a breather.