Well, that's not strictly true - Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh went down about 11km(!) to 'Challenger Deep', the deepest point in the oceans, back in 1960. But no one has been back since. However, it looks like a few people (including Branson) are going to be trying in the not too distant future.
The BBC has a nice little media thing here:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17013285
Some of it is a bit light-weight (eg. the polystyrene heads) but the 4 minute interview with Don Walsh right at the bottom of the page is definitely worth a listen.
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www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17289535
"Director James Cameron has said that he is close to diving 11km (seven miles) down to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific."
11km down in a single-man sub - no thanks! Should get some good footage if he makes it back, although I do worry that he won't.
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If that depth was reached 52 years ago, it shouldn't pose too much of a problem now, even a Lancer Estate could most likely withstand that sort of pressure.
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:) Would you fancy it though? I used to like swimming along the bottom of the swimming pool, but the pressure down there is bad enough!
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>> :) Would you fancy it though? I used to like swimming along the bottom of
>> the swimming pool, but the pressure down there is bad enough!
>>
Exactly, you would not catch anyone sensible a fraction of that far down. And what are they going to prove?
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If my arithmetic is right, every 10m depth is equivalent to approximately 1 atmosphere pressure.
11km = 1100 atm = ~15,000lbs/sq in = a bull elephant standing on every square inch of the craft surface.
Cool.
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You may think it is "Cool" but what are they going to do that a ROV can't?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 10:47
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Personal challenge? Not much point to climbing Everest either, but people still do it. Ok not as dangerous as it used to be but people still die up there.
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Fair enough, I have had enough "Personal challenges" to be able to do without them.
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I don't mind the odd challenge, but try to avoid ones where there's a good chance of me dying :)
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I would love to have a go and have a look,won't get the change do..:)
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I don't think there is much to see down there and a camera would do a better job than the Mk 1 eyeball.
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Maybe, but we know less about the surface of the deep ocean than we do about the surface of the Moon.
Like space travel, there may be some benefit from having guys at the coalface, but the bulk of any work will be cheaper and safer with robots.
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How long before they open a McDonald's down there I wonder :(
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>>How long before they open a McDonald's down there I wonder :(
Don't think I fancy a Prawnburger.
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>>Don't think I fancy a Prawnburger<<
How about a Grammatostomias flagellibarba burger then: www.seasky.org/deep-sea/dragonfish.html
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>> I don't think there is much to see down there and a camera would do
>> a better job than the Mk 1 eyeball.
You're just scared of going under water in a tin can.
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>> You're just scared of going under water in a tin can.
>>
:-))))))))))) Got lots of those T shirts. Maybe thats why I am not keen. I have probably further down than many of you have been across.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 17:35
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>> You're just scared of going under water in a tin can.
IIRC ON has done so and is probably more qualified than the rest of us to comment :)
Seriously, I think I'd rather go up in a helicopter than go down in a sub.
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Not me. I float, but I can't fly. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 17:42
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Aye mebbe, but the RAF give their guys ejector seats and parachutes. Wouldn't fancy bailing out of a sub at depth with a lifejacket on. Exploding space hopper impression to follow...
Respect ON. I couldn't have done it. I'm an amateur scuba diver and the very little I know about depth and pressures would royally put me off the notion.
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I have done 100' free ascents many times during escape training. Odd that the navy no longer do them because of Health n' Safety worries. During the 1960s the system was proved from 600'. If you are off the continental shelf when it goes pear shaped forget it.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 18:29
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>> Odd that the navy no longer do them because of Health n' Safety worries.
Eh? Shouldn't they ban subs altogether then? :)
Last edited by: Focus on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 18:30
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They still do the training, but only in theory and unpressurised runs.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 18:32
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>> Aye mebbe, but the RAF give their guys ejector seats and parachutes.
Not in helicopters or Nimrods when I flew in them.
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>>but the RAF give their guys ejector seats and parachutes.
>>Not in helicopters
Hmmm.. Darwin Award material here :-)
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Could bang oot sideyways eh no?
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>> Could bang oot sideyways eh no?
I think you'll find that when choppers fail they don't glide too well. I reckon if you bailed out of one and opened a 'chute it would soon catch you up.
;>(
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>> Respect ON.>>
Thanks Humph, but the people who really deserve the respect are the ones we have lost and their families.
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>> the people who really deserve the respect are the ones we have lost and their families.
Of course one knows what you mean ON, but modesty has led you into error. You don't have to die to prove yourself worthy of respect.
What about the Chinese Fleet Auxiliary chap who died the other day? Rescued 10 blokes from the blazing Sir Galahad in the Falklands war, lay low thereafter and got a George Medal ten years later when eventually identified by some of those he rescued?
Mind you he was only 63 when he died. I hope the asbestos suit he was wearing during his valorous act didn't have anything to do with his death, whose cause wasn't given in his Terrorflag obit.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 8 Mar 12 at 19:13
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AC's obit:
Locally-entered seamen like Chiu do not receive pensions, and when he died he was dependent on monthly financial assistance from the Hong Kong government.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9129584/Chiu-Yiu-Nam.html
ON, scared of a tin can, just as I said. ;)
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Chiu didn't recieve a navy pension? That is sad.
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He wasn't in the navy Dutchie. He was locally enrolled in the Fleet auxiliary, a sort of mercenary role not in an actual warship. There are similar anomalies elsewhere, as with the Ghurkas to whom we have owed so much over the years.
However although the government is cold-hearted by professional necessity, others lobby for decent pensions and residence rights for the Ghurkas for example, and Mr Chiu was honoured for his bravery a couple of years after the event (not ten as I said in an earlier post).
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>> ON, scared of a tin can, just as I said. ;)
>>
If you say so.
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>> Mind you he was only 63 when he died. I hope the asbestos suit he
>> was wearing during his valorous act didn't have anything to do with his death, whose
>> cause wasn't given in his Terrorflag obit.
>>
The fire fighting suits have not been asbestos for as long as I can remember, and certainly long before the Falklands war. Don't believe all you read in the papers
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>> The fire fighting suits have not been asbestos for as long as I can remember,
That would seem likely ON, but given the perverse conservatisms of all the armed forces it is reassuring to hear it.
I did witness as a child a most dramatic firefighting demonstration featuring the state-of-the-art admiralty kit of the day, in a naval facility (an armament supply depot). Sheets of flame were produced using paraffin and straw, and a bloke strode through them wielding an extinguisher, wearing a sort of diving suit with mica in the front of the helmet. The suit and gloves were made of thick asbestos fabric, dead white as if pipeclayed, and of dusty appearance... oo-er, one thought many years later. That was in the late forties, 1948 probably.
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Did fire fighting training in a special suit.With breathing apparatus.Very claustrophobic.
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I don't remember what the breathing arrangements were for the asbestos suit. Perhaps a gas mask/filter thing. I was only nine or ten and didn't identify anything like that. But the canisters strapped to the guy's back were for the extinguisher I'm pretty sure.
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We where send to Moreton in Marsh for extra training.Crawling through tunnels,down a ships cargo hole to extinquish a fire.All very exciting an tiring.>)
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...We where sent to Moreton in Marsh for extra training...
Was it here?
www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk/
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In the 1970s and 80s the local fire brigade trained at the Navy fire school at Rosyth, We had better kit and facilities, including a ship fire simulator that was really scary until you got used to it. We certainly had Thermal Imaging Cameras before the civil fire brigades.
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>> "Director James Cameron has said that he is close to diving 11km (seven miles) down
>> to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific."
Interview and update: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17399978
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He's on his way down...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17503395
Last edited by: Focus on Sun 25 Mar 12 at 21:23
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Well he did it:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17503395
2 hours to get down there, and 3 hours exploring - the footage could be interesting when it comes out.
Last edited by: Focus on Mon 26 Mar 12 at 10:58
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New vision now...L'es sitting in the hot tub with a G&T and headbanging to Quo:)
Pat
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Aw jeez Pat, I was just about to have lunch !
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reaching new depths - Focusless
