Missing ‘submarine’: What is a submersible and how is ‘Titan’ different from a submarine?

What is ‘Titan’?

OceanGate’s submersible vessel that went to explore the wreckage of the Titanic is somewhat appropriately, or ominously, called the Titan. It is a manned submersible designed to carry up to five people (one pilot and four crew members) to a depth of 4,000 metres, where they can carry out surveys and inspections, research and data collection, film and media production and deep sea testing of hardware and software.

According to OceanGate, Titan makes “innovative use of modern materials” to be “lighter in weight and more cost-efficient to mobilise than any other deep diving submersible.” The materials the company is referring to are carbon fibre and titanium.

Carbon fibre is a polymer that is known to be quite strong despite being lightweight. It can be as much as five times stronger than steel and twice as stiff, according to Innovative Composite Engineering. Titanium is as strong as steel but around 45 per cent lighter. It is twice as strong as aluminium but only 60 per cent heavier, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The vessel was made using a mixture of proprietary technologies and some off-the-shelf components, which the company claims makes it simple to operate and replace parts in the field.

Titan’s length is 6.7 metres, its width is 2.8 metres and its height is 2.5 metres, as per OceanGate. It weighs a total of 10,432 kilograms and has a payload capacity of up to 685 kilograms. Its four Innerspace 1002 electric thrusters are capable of propelling the vessel to a maximum speed of 3 knots (around 5.5 kilometres per hour) underwater.

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But its most important feature, perhaps, is its life support system that can sustain a crew of 5 for a maximum of 96 hours, according to the company. Also, the submersible uses a proprietary “Real Time Hull Health Monitoring” (RTM) system, which according to the company, provides “an unparalleled safety feature that assesses the integrity of the hull throughout every dive.”