Yeah this sounds like a bespoke Hell created just for me in case I am very, very evil in this lifetime. Inconceivable that people would pay actual money to experience this. :(
I imagine the people that are paying $250k per seat are very very wealthy. Would you send $1 on a bottle of cold water at an event? As fast as you answered that, there are people that spend $250k with the same ease. To them $250k is like $1.
I feel like a proper contingency in this scenario would be some sort of "instant death" system. Knowing you're going to die, but waiting 96 hours for it to happen sounds terrible.
I get where you're coming from but this sounds like an insanely bad idea. Perhaps I'd agree with you if there was something like cyanide pills people could opt to take, but even then I'm hesitant. There should be no way for one person (or some subset of people) to decide for everyone that now is the time to die; if someone wants to be in their head and push the limit and die at the last minute, that's their call and theirs alone. Also, if there is some miraculous rescue but someone has pulled the "instant death" switch, they've effectively murdered the rest of the people.
I've been toying around with some design concepts for a DIY submarine for like a decade now. The first thing I thought about, right after "how do I control it going up/down" was "what do I do when that system fails, and I need to ascend in an emergency?" My thought was to have some scuba tanks attached to deployable salvage lift bags, so even if my ballasts were completely screwed, I could still ascend.
If there's not something analogous to that on board the Titan, I'd be shocked at their stupidity; It seems incredibly foolhardy to intentionally go somewhere that no rescue vehicle can recover you, without secondary and tertiary systems in place to rescue yourself.
I've always been fascinated by submarines. I've wanted to make a remote control one with fpv but radio signals don't penetrate water very well underwater. If I have to have it tethered to a signal wire it's just "meh".
Would be nice as journalist to be insistent on inquiring the duration of the dive so far.
They write it's missing – but it is obvious where it is.
They write contact was lost, but it is unknown when.
This seems to be the whole point of such a news. Was contact lost 4 hours ago or 4 days ago? Contact lost 4h ago would probably be all fine, as they mention the dive tour takes around 8 hours. 4 days ago would mean they are all dead, as oxygen lasts that long according to the article.
And it left on Sunday around 6am to start the 96 hr timer. Best case they lost power, dropped their load, and floated to the surface and are just bobbing around somewhere in the ocean.
There's no way they wouldn't be able to deploy a bouy with a gps tied to the sub that floats to the surface, or something similar. Like your trapped in a metal can underwater you better have several contingency plans.
They have a toilet behind a curtain. Imagine trying to hold poop for 3+ days.. Imagine being the first one that poops and the odour.... My eyes are stinging thinking about it...
Rescue teams involved in the hunt for a missing submersible that had planned to visit the wrecked Titanic said "noises" had been detected early Wednesday close to where the sub ended contact with its control ship.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said the source of the noise was still unclear.