The missing tourist submersible is piloted with a gaming controller featuring “off-the-shelf” mods
This past weekend, a tourist sub on an excursion to the Titanic’s sunken remains disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, it’s been reported that the submersible is controlled with a retro-looking Logitech gamepad.
The excursion began on Sunday, embarking from St. John’s, Newfoundland. The submersible, called the ‘Titan,’ lost contact with mission control approximately two hours later, 700km south of the city.
OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the Titan’s underwater excursions, claims the Titan can house roughly five people and that the submersible features several displays and high-end camera equipment. The Titan is considered a submersible because it doesn’t have enough power to descend from port and return on its own. Instead, its mother ship needs to retrieve it.
In an interview with CBS several months ago, OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush explained that the Titan is controlled with a Logitech controller. “We run the whole thing with this game controller,” Rush states while showing CBS what looks like Logitech’s F710 gamepad.
As explained, the Logitech controller is modded with “off-the-shelf” components. Details regarding how the controller is modified aren’t outlined, but the thumbsticks have clearly been replaced. It’s worth noting that controlling a submersible with a video game-like controller isn’t entirely out of the ordinary. For example, some U.S. Navy submarines are controlled using Xbox 360 gamepads.
On top of using the Logitech controller, it’s important to note the Titan is an experimental vessel that uses a variety of other questionable engineering tactics. For instance, according to Rush, one of the interior lights was bought from CamperWorld, a recreational vehicle company.
OceanGate claims it worked with NASA, Boeing, and others to help create the vessel, ensuring it could pair “ground-breaking engineering and off-the-shelf technology.”
The U.S. Coast Guard is still looking for the lost sub. “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” said OceanGate in a recent statement. The sub had up to 96 hours of oxygen at the time of the disappearance.
OceanGate Expeditions reportedly cost tourists $250,000 (roughly $330,747 CAD) for an eight-day expedition.
Update 06/21/2023: More information about other submarines using video game gamepads to control them has been added to the story.
Image credit: OceanGate
Via: Insider
