[cpleppert]

Immediate implosion if a far more likely explanation because give that we knew it imploded the most likely time would be immediately after the pressure vessel reached maximum or near maximum stress and it failed. The time actually is not the biggest factor; it is the number of cycles the pressure vessel has endured. An implosion after a relatively low number of cycles is consistent with past incidents with pressurization failures.

As was pointed out, the submersible is pretty large and its a essentially a large cylinder which induces stress in the middle. Usually you make deep sea submersibles out of a sphere or spheroid because you don't have this failure modes.

It isn't surprising it failed. They were strong claims that the company did do enough test, rejected safety advice and even had the CEO claim that at one point the titan wouldn't be able to reach the titanic because it (a model maybe?) had experience a pressurization failure. To say nothing of the materials they were using.

Just comically bizarre that anyone involved in the project thought it would somehow survive let alone be safe.

[ak_111]

The most puzzling aspect, from what I understand from the experts, if it imploded at time and depth you are suggesting it would have been very likely to be registered by at least the controlling ship due to the noise. As you highlighted the sub is pretty large, imploding in a millisecond causes huge effects in the surroundings.

So saying it got lost and imploded after a few days solves two problems. Explains why there was no implosion noise originally, and that the banging heard afterwards was the implosion. Also it has a history of losing contact in its previous tours.

[spuz]

> Explains why there was no implosion noise originally,

We don't know that. There's a chance a noise was recorded but it wasn't made public in order not to compromise rescue attempts.

[kergonath]

It turns out that it’s exactly what happened.

[spuz]

Yes - according to the WSJ and an anonymous US official: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-navy-detected-titan-sub-imp...

[manchego]

They mentioned in the press conference that it was very unlikely that the implosion would have happened after more listening equipment was in use on the scene. I believe there were sonar buoys dropped on Monday, so the implosion likely happened before then.

[eric-hu]

There’s a series of episodes of Smarter Everyday where the host goes on a US nuclear submarine and interviews the crew and shows some of the equipment. In one of the episodes, they talk to navigators, who explain that submarines can be invisible to sensors in certain locations because the ocean water is not uniform. Temperature, currents and salinity vary, so a sound could be attenuated in some directions.

[deskamess]

> it would have been very likely to be registered by at least the controlling ship due to the noise

Why would they be listening? They would be looking at a device that was communicating via SMS or some radar screen at best.

> and that the banging heard afterwards was the implosion

Every 30 min?

[ergvgdvgrd]

Sounds fun. If I was driving a nuclear sub in the Atlantic sea, I'd definitely find an excuse to pop over and play with the kids splashing in my pond.