This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

by brian lam

2 newtritonsub This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

The Triton 36,000 is an amazing submarine. Previous generations of the Triton only went to 3,300 feet but the new model uses technology from Rayotek Scientific to make a passenger dome that reacts to increasing pressure from increasing depth by becoming stronger.

0 This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

The material is called borosilicate glass (soda-lime) and it should allow the Triton to reach the deepest part of the sea, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, at a rate of 500 feet per minute, reaching the bottom in 75 minutes.

subonaboat This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

The last time a vehicle did this, claims PhysOrg was 1960, and the Trieste, a bathysphere that carried two, was not in the least maneuverable, and carried a special edition Rolex called the Deep Sea Special (Mark III) to the bottom in a well publicized stunt that made rolex a legend. Functionally, the Rolex was also engineered with a super strong bubble face crystal.

Bathyscaphe Trieste 640x536 This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

The glass of the passenger compartment only reaches its pressure resistance of 16,000 psi by doing some crazy things. For example, it needs to use fiber optics to relay touch screen control signals through the glass of the 6-foot sphere. And the sphere itself is created to extremely high tolerances of geometric accuracy over 8 months by slowly and carefully heating and cooling the raw materials. These processes are the only thing that let the Triton 36,000–in theory–get as deep as its rated to go.

pic1 This Sub Gets Tougher As it Goes Deeper

*The Triton is in a race to the bottom of the trench with at least Sir Richard Branson’s Graham Hawkes designed Virgin Oceanic vehicle.