User:D'Nezzy Smith/DSV Limiting Factor

= DSV Limiting Factor =

Overview
DSV Limiting Factor is a 12-ton deep-diving submersible designed to reach full ocean depth (11,000m / 36,000ft). Named in honor of a ship in Iain M. Banks’ Culture series of science fiction novels, Limiting Factor was commissioned on June 8, 2016. The submersible was designed and built by Florida-based Triton Submarines and is currently being used by the Five Deeps Expedition in an attempt to dive to the deepest point in each of the world’s five oceans. To date, the submersible has made over 17 dives, including dives to the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench and Southern Ocean.

Specifications
Name: DSV Limiting Factor

Manufacturer: Triton Submarines, LLC

Model: Triton 36,000/2 FOD (Full Ocean Depth)

Owner: Caladan Oceanic, LLC

Status: In active service, as of 2018

Type: Non-tethered, crews, deep-submergence vehicle (DSV)

Dry Weight: 11.7 tonnes/25,700 lbs.

Length: 4,600 mm./15 ft.

Height: 3,700 mm./12.2 ft.

Width: 1900 mm./6.2 ft.

Speed (vertical): 1.5-2 knots

Operating Depth: 11,000 m/36,000 ft.

Test Depth: 14,000 m./45,900 ft.

Crew: 2 (1 pilot, 1 scientific observer/passenger)

Development
Limiting Factor’s titanium pressure hull was developed using a new forging technique and is an entirely weld-free design; both are essential factors in achieving the near-perfect circularity essential to its ability to withstand external pressures greater than 16,000 psi/1,100 bar. Measuring 90mm/3.54” thick, and 1590mm in external diameter, the hull was ultimately fabricated to 99.94% true circularity – exceeding its design requirement of 99.00%. Following its construction in the USA and Spain, Limiting Factor’s pressure hull was pressure-tested to 14,000m / 39,000ft – 20% deeper than full ocean depth - at the Krylov State Research Center in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Core component manufacture took place across Europe with sub-system assembly and pressure testing principally in the US, UK and Spain. Sub-assemblies were shipped to Florida, USA for final assembly.

Certification
Limiting Factor is currently undergoing third-party commercial safety standard certification by DNV-GL of Norway. Its final verification dive is scheduled for May 2019 when, under a DNV-GL engineer riding along as an observer, Limiting Factor will attempt to make a dive to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. If successful, Limiting Factor will become the world’s first and only manned submersible commercially certified for repeated dives to full ocean depth. The two previous submersibles to dive to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the Trieste (1960) and the Deepsea Challenger (2010), were technically both “experimental” craft and neither ever dove to the bottom of the ocean more than once.

Early Dives
Limiting Factor made its first dives in the Bahamas during sea trials in August and September 2018. It reached depths in excess of 4,900m / 16,000ft.

The Five Deeps Expedition Dives
On December 21, 2018 Limiting Factor took explorer Victor Vescovo to the Puerto Rico Trench, reaching a depth of 8,326m / 27,480ft and surpassing the previous Atlantic record held by the French submersible Archimède. Limiting Factor became the first American-made submersible to dive deeper than 6,100m / 20,000ft since the US Navy’s DSV-4 Sea Cliff in 1985, thirty-three years earlier. On February 2019, Limiting Factor took Vescovo to the bottom of the Southern Ocean - the South Sandwich Trench - where he became the first human to do so. Limiting Factor achieved a depth of 7,433m / 24,388 ft at what the Five Deeps Expedition has proposed naming the “Factorian Deep” after the submarine that first visited it.

Future Dives
As part of the Five Deeps Expedition schedule, Limiting Factor is expected to make at least four further ultra-deep dives: The Java Trench in April 2019, Challenger Deep in May 2019, Tonga Trench in June 2019 and Molloy Deep in September 2019. The sub is also scheduled to dive on the RMS Titanic in late July 2019 on its way to the Molloy Deep.

Records

 * First manned submersible to dive to the deepest known point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Brownson Deep.
 * Second-deepest solo dive ever made, by Victor Vescovo at the Brownson Deep


 * First manned submersible to dive to the deepest known point in the Southern Ocean.
 * The deepest-diving operational submersible in the world, surpassing the Chinese submersible Jiaolong which has reportedly reached a maximum depth of 7,062 m/23,169.29 ft.
 * First full-ocean-depth capable submersible to undergo commercial certification by third-party classification society.