Comment by andrewrn
5 days ago
I work on autonomous submarines that image the seafloor, and let me tell you it is very hard to engineer deep ocean systems. Just operationally, testing things in rolling waves is a brutal job. Arguably at parity with space as an engineering design environment.
I (briefly) worked as a test engineer on a similar kind of contract. To meet the UX requirements for the system we were building, it had to be reliably operable in sea state 7+. The customer wanted touch screen interfaces. I exited that project when they were looking for volunteers to go spend time offshore in the Gulf of Alaska in bad weather, because that was the test environment they could find that met the requirements. Insanity.
damn, I would definitely have volunteered. But quite a crazy environment, seems to me mechanical switches with protective caps to prevent accidental activation on would be better suited to such things. Though it also depends on the possible consequences of the wrong input I suppose, if it were like a microwave or a clothes washer I guess its fine
Shoulda told them to test it on roller coaster with a splash zone. Way easier to get engineers to come to work at Six Flags than brave the briny deep.
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I forget who said it, but there's a quote about how _of course_ we know more about space than the bottom of the ocean - in space we only have to deal with one atmosphere.
>only have to deal with one atmosphere.
A difference of one atmosphere?
There’s only one atmosphere of pressure from inside to outside. Under the sea the direction is reversed and pressure is much higher.
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Fry: "How many atmospheres can the ship withstand?" Professor: "Well, it's a spaceship, so I'd say anywhere between zero and one." s02e12
The one atmosphere that telescopes are looking through. It is nowhere near as problematic as looking through seawater.
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futurama comes to mind. the spacecraft can withsthand any level of atmosphere between 0 and 1
I found that sea, space and automotive are the three most hostile environments, each with very different requirements that made it hard in different ways.
Seems reasonable. I'd like to hear your thinking on the automotive side. Is it the cost pressure at scale and durability requirements?
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