Finding a tiny submersible in the vast, icy ocean surrounding the remote Canadian coast of Newfoundland, Canada is a daunting task.
If, in addition, the oxygen available to the crew is close to running out, the rescue teams cannot work more than against the clock.
The operation to locate the missing commercial submarine with 5 people who were going to visit the remains of the Titanic is especially challenging, despite the fact that in the last few hours “sounds of blows” in the search area have restored hope of finding them alive.
It is estimated that the five people on board had about 40 hours of air left to breathe.
The submersible has tanks capable of supplying its five occupants with oxygen for up to 96 hours, but 3 days have passed since it was lost.
The crew of the Titan ship, belonging to the OceanGate company, lost contact with the base 1 hour and 45 minutes after submerging in the sea, according to the United States Coast Guard.
Alistair Greig, Professor of Marine Engineering at University College London, explains why the search is so difficult.
“Communication through water is always very difficult. Once communication is lost, it is very difficult to locate where it is. One of the big problems with the operation is that they don’t know whether to look at the surface of the Atlantic or at the bottom of the sea. It could be in any of the two places.”
For the expert, it is unlikely that OceanGate’s experimental submarine is in the middle. He believes that he is either floating or completely sunk.
unpredictable movement
Jamie Pringle, a researcher at Keele University, points out that another difficulty is that the spacecraft may be moving unpredictably right now.
The submersible disappeared into the ocean approximately 1,500 kilometers from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the depth is approximately 4,000 meters.
“If it’s on the surface of the ocean, it’s going to be very difficult to detect because, because it’s a submersible, it’s designed to have neutral buoyancy. That is, most of the ship floats underwater with only a small amount of surface visible.” says Greg.
The submersible, made of carbon fiber and titanium, is “the size of a large van, and it’s painted white.”
“Trying to find something like this from the air, particularly if they’ve run out of power and can’t send signals, it’s going to be a real challenge.”
trapped inside
Another of the additional complications is that the crew cannot leave on their own.
The ship cannot be opened from the inside; it can only be opened by specialized equipment from the outside.
That is why, in the hypothetical case that the ship was able to reach the surface, the passengers would not be able to get out of it without outside help.
“If it’s on the bottom of the sea, it’s not going to be so much looking for them, it’s going to be listening for them because what’s used to locate them is sonar, and hopefully the crew will make some noise on the hull, which can be detected.” says the professor of marine engineering.
They explain how they are using sound
Sound is the way to communicate in the ocean. Whales and porpoises use it, just like humans.
All forms of electromagnetic radiation, such as radio or radar, are pretty much useless underwater.
But sound travels efficiently, it travels fast (1,500 m/s) and over great distances.
That’s why the rescue operation has been dropping sonobuoys into the water, listening for any unusual sounds.
If the hits detected every 30 minutes come from the ship and are real, the authorities can use them to locate the submarine.
If they are transmitted as a regular pattern, you can time the arrival of that pattern at different sonobuoys to get where the source is coming from.
The GPS receiver does something similar on your phone, using radio signals transmitted from different satellites.
Sound focusing is not that precise, but it would be a great help in reducing the efforts of the remotely operated drone.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-65971908, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-06-21 12:40:06
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