Underwater record

[Fastpedeller]

In the news today - A guy has set a record for living underwater 120 days. Maybe I've missed a critical detail, but haven't people on nuclear subs been underwater for much longer?

[NRG1976]

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

[Gareth79]

Although this guy's setup was only 11m down and had a staircase to the surface, so it wasn't like saturation diving where the living capsule is pressurised and the person is isolated:

https://divernet.com/scuba-news/pod-builder-comple...

[V88Dicky]

Fastpedeller said:

In the news today - A guy has set a record for living underwater 120 days. Maybe I've missed a critical detail, but haven't people on nuclear subs been underwater for much longer?

Indeed.

Our SSBNs are doing significantly more than that these days, due mainly to servicibility of the other three boats, amongst other reasons. They’re absolutely knackered when they get home….

[GR86oldboy]

NRG1976 said:

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

No they don't.

[NRG1976]

GR86oldboy said:

NRG1976 said:

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

No they don't.

Ok, you might want to let the navy know

“ Submarines depressurize to balance out the pressure difference between the water and the air inside the submarine. This is done by pumping air out of the ballast tanks when the submarine ascends”

[Scrump]

NRG1976 said:

GR86oldboy said:

NRG1976 said:

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

No they don't.

Ok, you might want to let the navy know

“ Submarines depressurize to balance out the pressure difference between the water and the air inside the submarine. This is done by pumping air out of the ballast tanks when the submarine ascends”

The quote is referring to the ballast tanks, not the breathable atmosphere inside the pressure hull.

[NRG1976]

Scrump said:

NRG1976 said:

GR86oldboy said:

NRG1976 said:

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

No they don't.

Ok, you might want to let the navy know

“ Submarines depressurize to balance out the pressure difference between the water and the air inside the submarine. This is done by pumping air out of the ballast tanks when the submarine ascends”

The quote is referring to the ballast tanks, not the breathable atmosphere inside the pressure hull.

The guy who stayed under water to get the record did so without any management of the atmospheric pressure.

Within a submarine the atmospheric pressure is managed so that the crew do not get the bends.

As such, whilst sub crews may have been underwater longer than the guy who took the world record, it is not a valid comparison in the context of the world record being held.

Not sure how else to explain visa-vis the OP post why the sub crew are not the record holders…

[Scrump]

NRG1976 said:

The guy who stayed under water to get the record did so without any management of the atmospheric pressure.

Within a submarine the atmospheric pressure is managed so that the crew do not get the bends.

As such, whilst sub crews may have been underwater longer than the guy who took the world record, it is not a valid comparison in the context of the world record being held.

Not sure how else to explain visa-vis the OP post why the sub crew are not the record holders…

Thanks for the lesson. So the record chap had a breathable atmosphere at 1 atm. What pressure is the breathable atmosphere inside a navy submarine?

[NRG1976]

Scrump said:

NRG1976 said:

The guy who stayed under water to get the record did so without any management of the atmospheric pressure.

Within a submarine the atmospheric pressure is managed so that the crew do not get the bends.

As such, whilst sub crews may have been underwater longer than the guy who took the world record, it is not a valid comparison in the context of the world record being held.

Not sure how else to explain visa-vis the OP post why the sub crew are not the record holders…

Thanks for the lesson. So the record chap had a breathable atmosphere at 1 atm. What pressure is the breathable atmosphere inside a navy submarine?

Yes very clever, so do you want to explain why the sub crew are not the record holders as opposed to just trying to be a point scoring ass? Pat on the back or a cookie for you if it makes you feel happier?

[Scrump]

NRG1976 said:

Yes very clever, so do you want to explain why the sub crew are not the record holders as opposed to just trying to be a point scoring ass? Pat on the back or a cookie for you if it makes you feel happier?

You would have to ask the Guineas Book of records that question.
What I have been patiently trying to point out to you is that navy submarines do not need to depressurise the breathable atmosphere in normal operation. The atmosphere is maintained at 1atm, give or take. This means there is no risk of the bends as the submarine surfaces.
Anyone outside the pressure hull (e.g. Special Forces) will be breathing pressurised air and will be at risk of bends but this does not occur for long periods and is different to the sub crew.

[NRG1976]

Scrump said:

NRG1976 said:

Yes very clever, so do you want to explain why the sub crew are not the record holders as opposed to just trying to be a point scoring ass? Pat on the back or a cookie for you if it makes you feel happier?

You would have to ask the Guineas Book of records that question.
What I have been patiently trying to point out to you is that navy submarines do not need to depressurise the breathable atmosphere in normal operation. The atmosphere is maintained at 1atm, give or take. This means there is no risk of the bends as the submarine surfaces.
Anyone outside the pressure hull (e.g. Special Forces) will be breathing pressurised air and will be at risk of bends but this is different to the sub crew.

Ah ok, so rather than help answer the question you just wanted to act like a know it all. Whatever rocks your world I guess. I’ll give you a virtual pat on the back as that is what you seemed to be looking for. You weren’t trying to explain anything btw, just posting bit by bit to try to score points.

Given the guy lived at 11 meters below sea level I suspect he didn’t have the same atmospheric pressure as at sea level, however nuanced that is, my suspicion is that is what separates him from a submarine crew, but I’ll let someone as knowledgeable as you let me know

[Scrump]

[gotoPzero]

According to google the longest official submerged sub was 111 days during the Falklands.

Its a bit like "Pete" Knight X15 pilot who is the fastest man alive (in the atmosphere) at Mach 6.7..... officially.

[CraigyMc]

gotoPzero said:

According to google the longest official submerged sub was 111 days during the Falklands.


Its a bit like "Pete" Knight X15 pilot who is the fastest man alive (in the atmosphere) at Mach 6.7..... officially.

"Official" changes over time, of course.

By the way, the X15 record is for a powered plane. The shuttle was hand-flown in from orbit by Joe Engle (who was also an X15 pilot years beforehand) -- STS-2 was the only manual re-entry in the program, and would have been from mach 25 or so down to gliding to a stop, but where you define that as being "atmospheric" is debatable.

Then there's the machine Lockheed keep hinting at.

Anyway, popular mechanics did a story about long sub patrols not all that long ago.
It's here https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-shi...
The TL;DR is that the Royal Navy had a boomer at sea for 6 months. As an SSBN it was probably submerged the whole time.

The audacious is an attack sub that was away from port for a year, although it'd likely have surfaced many times.
Link --> https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2023/april/11/23...

Edited by CraigyMc on Sunday 26th January 22:32

[GR86oldboy]

NRG1976 said:

GR86oldboy said:

NRG1976 said:

The key words are “without depressurisation”. Subs depressurise.

No they don't.

Ok, you might want to let the navy know

“ Submarines depressurize to balance out the pressure difference between the water and the air inside the submarine. This is done by pumping air out of the ballast tanks when the submarine ascends”

I think you've been schooled that the air pressure inside the pressure hull does not change, pressure in ballast tanks does. BTW I do have experience of being on Naval subs - underwater.

[hairykrishna]

“underwater human habitation at ambient pressure“

If you pay the Guinness book of records to verify your record, they'll give you whatever wording you like. That's why a bloke essentially living in a cellar with portholes holds the record.

[thegreenhell]

Could it simply be that the amount of information that Guinness need to verify a world record is not something that the Royal Navy, or any military, is willing to give out as it could potentially give away sensitive information? Even if they did, how do we know the Russians or Chinese haven't done even longer deployments? They aren't going to tell you, so it's all a bit pointless anyway.

[Sway]

Sigh, what tedium.

So he's got the record for the longest period at above atmospheric pressure. Fair play that'd get hugely boring really quickly.

[bloomen]

Put together by the company co founded by this guy who was going to be slaughtered by the Thais for hanging out in a shed dangling above their waters, or somewhere sort of near them - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/18/us-b...

I guess he learnt his lesson and intends to remain underwater from now on.

Edited by bloomen on Monday 27th January 02:58