The missing Titanic excursion submarine is controlled by a Logitech game pad. On Sunday morning, a submersible vessel carrying five people went missing in the Atlantic, roughly one hour and forty-five minutes into a mission to investigate the RMS Titanic’s wreckage.
The vessel is made of carbon fiber and titanium and has enough air for 96 hours;
However, as word of the emergency has spread, there is also astonishment regarding the wireless Logitech F710 game-pad used for steering. The Titan advertises “state-of-the-art lighting and sonar navigation systems plus internally and externally mounted 4K video and photographic equipment,” and this CBS News Sunday Morning segment from David Pogue from last summer shows a reporter chuckling as he is shown its controls. The CEO of Ocean Gate, Stockton Rush, holds up the F710 and states, “Everything is controlled by this game controller.” The reporter alludes to the “MacGyver jury-riggedness” of the entire operation, which utilized numerous off-the-shelf components. As Rush stated, “certain things, you want to be buttoned down,” referencing his work with Boeing and NASA.
The US Navy employs game pads to control submarine periscopes and the pho-tonic masts that have replaced them.
The Bo-Eng Company has demonstrated an Xbox One controller controlling one of its massive drilling machines. Game pads are versatile, comfortable, and familiar to use, but I’ve experienced controller failures during intensive matches often enough to raise an eyebrow at the notion of relying on a generic wirelessly connected device for something so vital. As described by Rush, this is not just the periscope; it is the vessel itself.
Titan submersible for five passengers costs $250,000
Reportedly, each berth aboard the Titan submersible for five passengers costs $250,000. A release signed prior to the expedition states that “this experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and its use could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death.” Other aspects of Pogue’s experience are more traumatic. During one of the dives, while he remained on the ship, the submersible became lost for hours and never located the shipwreck. During that time, Ocean Gate disabled internet access, claiming it required all available channels to maintain contact with the sub. Ocean Gate tweeted last week that its 2023 expeditions will use Star link’s satellite internet service to communicate with the outside world. It is unknown what type of internet connection was available on the ship at that time. Without GPS, the Titan is guided by text messages sent from the surface ship;
Without GPS, the Titan is guided by text messages sent from the surface ship
However, in an interview with BBC News, Pogue stated that these messages may only function when the sub is directly beneath the ship. He also stated in a tweet that it lacks an emergency locator beacon that could assist rescuers in locating it on the ocean floor or once it has risen to the surface. The submarine is also fastened from the exterior, requiring rescuers to extract its occupants using one of several available methods even after it has reached the surface. The approximate location of the voyage is 380 nautical miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. Since Sunday morning, the US Coast Guard has participated in the search, using aircraft with sonar to explore underwater, sonar buoys, sonar from the expedition ship, and visual inspections of the surface. Coast Guard officials have scheduled a press briefing for 1 p.m. ET to provide additional information on the search area, which as of this morning covered 10,000 square miles.
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