Another company wants to put billionaires in a submarine and take them to the wreckage of the Titanic. Yes really

One of the most popular news stories of last summer was, without a doubt, the implosion of the OceanGate submarine that killed five people. The company was dedicated to taking wealthy people to see the remains of the Titanic and, on this occasion, the trip did not end well. The company closed and left an important message on the table: the ocean is dangerous and these types of experiences can be lethal.

Now another billionaire is going to try it again to prove that it is safe.

OceanGate was not the only one. First of all, it is worth remembering that OceanGate was not a unique company of its kind. Eyos is another company specialized in this type of underwater experience out of reach of most mortals. There are also companies, such as Triton and U-Boat Worx, which are dedicated to manufacturing private submersibles. It is easy to imagine what it meant for these companies when a submersible like Titan ended up imploding.

In the case of Triton, the company had delivered 18 personal submersibles in the last 15 years, says Craig Barnett, the company’s sales director. to the Wall Street Journal. He explains that before the fateful event they had 15 other projects in the pipeline and that one was canceled immediately: “We had a four million dollar submarine that we were building for a family yacht and the wife canceled it,” he says.

A few days after the Titan implosion, the phone rang.

Larry Connor. That is the name of this billionaire real estate investor founder of The Connor Group. If it sounds familiar to you, it may be because a while ago he went down to the Mariana Trench and, shortly after, he was one of the first tourists to travel to the International Space Station (and complain because he had to work a lot).

He was on the other end of the line and told Barnett that “what we have to do is build a submarine that can submerge.” [a la profundidad del Titanic] repeatedly and safely and show the world that you can do it, and that the Titan was just a gadget.” In his own words:

“I want to teach people around the world that although the ocean is extremely powerful, it can also be wonderful and enjoyable and truly life-changing if done the right way.”

The plan. So, and since telling it is not the same as living it, Connor, together with Patrick Lahey (co-founder of Triton), is going to descend to where the remains of the Titanic are located. To do this, they are going to use a submarine called Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, a submersible for two people capable of diving up to 4,000 meters deep. Its price is only 20 million dollars. It’s not money. Small change.

When? It is not known. At the moment, neither Connor nor Triton have confirmed when they intend to make this peculiar trip that ended so badly on previous occasions. All in all, Titan was a very questionable submersible in terms of safety and certifications. Triton aims to demonstrate that these experiences can be safe and surely he would not venture into this letter if he were not very clear about his capabilities. We will see.

From the ocean to Venus. Guillermo Söhnlein, one of the co-founders of OceanGate, has not thrown in the towel and is already working on his next goal: a human colony on Venus that he intends to have ready by the year 2050. The idea is not so much to colonize the planet (which is the most similar to hell that we can imagine), but to establish a floating colony of a thousand people 48 kilometers from the surface. According to Söhnlein, the pressure and temperature conditions there are more moderate and allow life.

Image | Triton Subs

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