For Thursday: Taub, "The Titan Submersible Was "An Accident Waiting to Happen""

 

For Thursday: Taub, “The Titan Submersible Was “An Accident Waiting to Happen” (130-148)

Answer TWO of the following as usual:

Q1: What’s so important about the opening paragraph, and how does it become a kind of ‘thesis’ for the entire essay? Similarly, what does it say about Stockton Rush’s approach to underwater exploration?

Q2: A passenger on one of the trips to the Titanic in the Titan submersible says that “she had delayed buying a car, getting married, and having kids all “because I wanted to go to Titanic”” (145). And she really did have to choose, since buying a seat on the vessel cost 250,000! Do you think this is worth it, as she and many others did? Why are people spending so much money, and risking their very lives, just to get a glimpse?

Q3: Rush thinks that using carbon fiber is the future of underwater exploration, even after people raise doubts about its reliability. According to the essay, why was he so married to this idea? What about it appealed to him? And what did he tragically overlook about its suitability to submarines?

Q4: One of the biggest “why does it matter?” answers comes from another question: why didn’t anyone try to stop Rush when so many people felt he was doomed to fail? For over a decade he continued to build his submersibles and take people down to the Titanic, even though there were multiple whistleblowers. What prevented him from getting in trouble or simply being regulated more carefully?