It’s very dark down there. So dark, in fact, that the image at left might not do it justice. Lights don’t penetrate very far at those depths. At the depth of the wreckage of RMS Titanic, the pressure is around 4,000 pounds per square inch – the bite force of a saltwater crocodile.

Because of that, the Titan is spartan. Videos show a bluetooth controller and touchscreens in tight quarters. People spend $250,000 US to do this.

The New York Times has great coverage of the entire situation with the rescue efforts of the submersible Titan.

People also spend a lot of money to go to space. Virgin Galactic is willing to take $450,000 US of your spare change that you may find in your couch, as an example. It does have better lighting on that trip, I hear.

I’m an explorer myself, and I enjoy seeing new and interesting places and things. I have no interest in seeing the RMS Titanic’s wreckage which is essentially a graveyard. No one does expeditions like this in Pearl Harbor because those dead are honored and respected. The RMS Titanic’s dead apparently are not as much. Is it exploration or is it tourism? I think it’s tourism. Thrill seeking.

We can’t truly fathom how out of depth we are that deep in the ocean.

Why it sank is summarized as, “High speeds, a fatal wrong turn, cut costs, weather conditions, a dismissed key iceberg warning and lack of binoculars and lifeboats all contributed.” In essence, mistakes were made and the oceans do not abide mistakes very well.

Of course, we all hope that they are found alive and well, and someone will give them steaming cups of hot cocoa for their trouble. The news is alive with it because the news loves a good tragedy in the making, particularly one where it’s very dark and air is running out.

James Cameron might even do a movie about it, regardless of how it turns out, though I expect there won’t be much in the way of romance – and romance is what really sold the movie about the Titanic because we all know how it ends.

I suppose what bothers me most is that rescuing 5 survivors off that submersible that voluntarily went down there is such a news cycle item when there are people who are unable to get assistance in situations that they were involuntarily placed in. There are plenty of people who could use assistance from all these governments to simply keep their heads above water.

When the Challenger exploded, as could well happen with some of that space tourism stuff, these were scientists that were going to actually explore. To find out new things, to broaden humanity’s horizons, and I simply don’t feel the same about some people who pay exorbitant amounts to have a seat without giving anything of value back to humanity other than saying that they had a window view of a very sunken ship.

I bear them no ill will, in fact I wish them a safe rescue. It just seems priorities are askew. People paying to throw themselves off cliffs are costing millions in rescue efforts. People are spending hours watching nothing happen, because these things are not easy to do, and we have gained…

Well, when it’s all said and done, we’ll see what we’ve gained from this other than some advertising for the media, and maybe cost to taxpayers of the involved nations. That seems very weird to me.

Very weird.

It is, after all, very dark down there. We can send unmanned craft to go look at things that deep.