[yew]

@PaulGAllen: Pressure at bottom is 16,285 Pounds per square inch at that depth. Design pressure was 16,500 ...Yikes/Amazing!

Amazing that it is working. The engineering must be interesting.

Edit: Apparently the DC weighs a tenth as much as the Trieste (the original bathyscaphe), including all the instruments. Less than a lifetime. . .

[elithrar]

> @PaulGAllen: Pressure at bottom is 16,285 Pounds per square inch at that depth. Design pressure was 16,500 ...Yikes/Amazing! Amazing that it is working. The engineering must be interesting.

I'd love to see a dissection of the submersible once they bring it back up. It'd be interesting to see if there were any seal or structural failures.

[evoxed]

Just read that too. That's not much of a safety factor! Still, it's quite a feat and I hope it continues smoothly.

[JshWright]

It's quite likely that the 16,500PSI rating is accounting for the safety factor.

[snarf]

16,500 PSI was just what it was tested at, and it could apparently withstand significantly greater pressure than that. From the Deep Sea Challenge website:

"The hull, complete with its hatch and viewport, was tested twice in a pressure chamber at Pennsylvania State University to an equivalent full-ocean-depth pressure of 16,500 pounds per square inch (1,138 bars). It passed both tests. Twenty-two strain gauges attached to the sphere gave data that indicated the sphere could withstand up to 140 percent of the test pressure without buckling."

[evoxed]

You're probably right– at least, I hope you're right. Looks like everything went as expected though, so congratulations to everyone who worked on it. Still waiting to see what they collect...

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Essentially no safety margin. I wonder what's normally considered reasonable.