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I keep seeing this headline and it's a bit misleading to imply that its not a functional way to control that type of vehicle, even the American military has been known to use them.
The purpose for the control method was to have something to have a go when it was safe, they had several on hand in the off chance something happened to it.
These controllers are a product of decades of functional advancements, them being intuitive to use doesn't mean that they are not efficient and functional.
Man. That’s the control you give to your little brother because you don’t want him to get the good control all sticky.
Also of interest via this blog is this statement from OceanGate about why their subs aren't classed.
innovation often falls outside of the existing industry paradigm.
Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation.
If I wanted to can and sell hubris, I know where to source it from now.
“Move fast and break things” maybe doesn’t apply too well to submarine design.
It seems like a really bad idea to use a wireless controller instead of a wired one. But I guess it shouldn't matter as long as they have a backup wired controller in case the wireless one dies.
I think there's more to it than that.
When working at industrial factories if I catch a glimpse of something run off a cheap consumer alternative to the standard industry equipment I immediately question everything. If they're willing to skimp on that item, where else have they skimped?
Submarines have got to be insanely expensive right? It seems kinda silly to even cheap out on components like this, when their cost of probably going to be a tiny fraction of the cost of the vehicle anyway.
There's nothing wrong with using a game controller to steer the thing, I think the issue is more the lack of backup or failsafes.
Also, I'm very much a layperson in this field, but would it have not made sense to tether this thing to a ship on the surface? They could have kept in contact with the surface via the tether and had them reel the thing back in if there were problems with its propulsion or steering.
I saw the video of its interior. As someone who has claustrophobia, it's absolute nightmare fuel. It's a cylinder about 15 feet long and maybe 6 feet wide that you can't even stand up in. It's going to be very unpleasant for 5 people.
I agree completely with the controller, it doesn't really matter what is used to steer the ship, just that it has fail-safes.
I don't think resurfacing is the most important part here. Bathyscaphes are normally designed to jettison iron or steel ballasts attached by electromagnet, which allows them to surface due to their natural buoyancy. It's impossible to say if that's how the Titan works though, there isn't a lot of detail available publicly about its design.
This is a really interesting video to get a take from an experienced submariner that I found really informative - https://youtu.be/4dka29FSZac