Capacity, oxygen… What are the characteristics of Titan, the submarine that disappeared near the Titanic?

Alert in the North Atlantic. This Tuesday, the US and Canadian coast guards continue their search operations for a small tourist submarine missing since Sunday with five people on board, who have gone to visit the remains of the Titanic. Authorities were notified of the disappearance Sunday afternoon by the vessel’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions.

• Greater capacity

It was aboard the submersible, named Titan, that the five travelers, including wealthy British businessman and space tourist Hamish Harding, took place on Sunday. The flagship of OceanGate Expeditions, this submarine is innovative in many ways.

According to the company’s website, Titan is capable of transporting five people, a pilot plus four passengers, up to 4,000 meters below the surface of the water, which is the depth at which the remains of the Titanic have been found since its sinking in 1912. .

“It’s a bit of an innovative submarine because most manned submersibles don’t carry more than three people on board. It has a maximum capacity of five people ”, he argues to West of FranceVirginie Brenot-Beaufrère, cultural manager of the Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg.

• Technological innovations

Above all, the use of innovative materials for its design, including carbon fiber, considerably reduces its total weight, which is “only” 10,432 kilos, including 685 payload.

“This submarine features several technological innovations including a carbon fiber hull that allows for significant weight savings compared to a steel or titanium hull; a reversible flex adjuster for weight operating in air up to 3800m. This adjuster allows for a very fine adjustment of the weighing”, indicated Paul-Henri Nargeolet at the Cité de la Mer, a specialist in exploration of the Titanic.

The use of these materials also allows the installation of a large window for viewing the remains, illuminated by 40,000 lumens of exterior light. The dives are immortalized by a Sub C Imaging 4k Rayfin camera.

For travel, it is equipped with four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters and is described by OceanGate Expeditions as “cheaper to mobilize than any other deep-submersible submersible.”

• 70 to 96 hours of oxygen

Despite the current incident, the nature of which is unknown, OceanGate Expeditions indicates in its description that Titan is equipped with several high-performance security tools. Among them is a unique real-time Hull Condition Monitoring (RTM) system.

“The RTM system makes it possible to analyze the effects of pressure variation on the vessel as the submersible is submerged deeper and to accurately assess the integrity of the structure,” we learn. The RTM system thus makes it possible to warn the pilot sufficiently in advance in the event of a problem “to stop the descent and return to the surface safely”.

Another crucial feature, as rescuers race against time to find the sub and its five passengers, Titan is initially equipped with enough oxygen to keep the five crew members alive for up to 96 hours.

The Titan began its descent into the Atlantic early Sunday afternoon, Paris time. From this data, it is possible to estimate that the Titan will run out of air no later than 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, in the best of cases.

During a press conference organized this Monday, Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the United States Coast Guard, for his part, argued that the vessel has oxygen reserves that allow it to be “autonomous” between 70 and 96 hours. In this most pessimistic scenario, the five passengers will be without oxygen starting Wednesday at 11 a.m. Paris time.

• Various scenarios

Without having studied the ship itself, Alistair Greig, professor of marine engineering at University College London, told AFP two possible theories based on images of the device published by the press.

He believes that if it had an electrical or communication problem, the sub could surface, floating “waiting to be found.”

“Another scenario is that the hull has been compromised,” and there has been a leak. “So the prognosis is not good,” she added. And “very few boats can go” to the depth that could have sunk, she said.

Two planes, a US C-130 and a Canadian P8 equipped with sonar capable of detecting submarines, are taking part in the search, according to the US Coast Guard.