Amateur Scientists and Explorers

It is no secret that I enjoy my job at Sony. I love what I do and my work conditions could not be any better. However that doesn't keep me from thinking about changing careers every now and then. I've thought about being a high-school teacher and even spent a week as a substitute one. Unfortunately kids treat substitutes with an insane amount of disrespect. The morning of the first day of class a kid walked in and said, "You must be a total looser if this is the only job you could get." Little did he know that I could afford to be a substitute teacher because of my successful career in the tech industry.

I've also thought about making my passion my career. I could follow my youngest daughter's career path and be a ski instructor or work at a ski resort. My fear is that skiing would then become like work. Right now when I head up to the ski resort before work, it doesn't matter what the weather is like, I will only be there for an hour and don't mind skiing in storms. If skiing became my job, I might learn to detest snowy days instead of embracing them like I do now.

I've also thought about doing something relating to sailing. I currently have a sailboat that I keep in the Great Salt Lake and love to take it out as my schedule permits. The only problem with a sailboat is that it is a hole in the water you pour money into and there are not a lot of ways to make money with them. Sure I could try to offer tours but that requires getting a captain's license and that takes a lot of work.

I was thinking along the lines of how to make money with a sailboat and came up with a new idea related to our planet's oceans. It doesn't require a sailboat but tiny submarines instead. Imagine a spherical submarine the size of a softball or large grapefruit with 3 or 4 fins and a propeller. When it sits in the water, it barely floats so that if it loses power, the submarine would automatically rise to the surface. Now put a solar panel on the top of it to charge the device's battery. You could include a number of sensors such as GPS, pressure, and temperature. You may even put a 4K camera on the front of it with some sort of low-power LED illumination. If you do it right and control costs, my guess is you could keep the price under $100. That would allow all sorts of amateur scientists and explorers to use them for any number of purposes.

I think the idea has merit and am looking for feedback. No I don't plan to leave Sony to create such a device nor do I think they have any plans to create one, though I could always ask. Instead I would like to open source the idea and get feedback on what sensors should be included and how it would be used. Some simple ideas might be tracking the changes in ocean currents or using AI and the camera to have the device follow specific marine life without attaching a tag. Who knows, it might best provide a platform to improve current marine research technology.

Let me know what you think and if there is use for such an inexpensive robot submarine. How do you think it would best serve the marine research community? With an idea like this, feedback is always appreciated.

Hoping for a Miracle

Most everyone has heard about the tragic story of the Titan sub trying to bring tourists down to see the Titanic. I spent Monday morning this week working on my sailboat's outboard engine. On the drive home, I heard a quick news blurb on the radio and became interested in the story. The sub went missing on Sunday and everyone knew they had 96 hours of air before the crew would start suffocating. I sincerely hoped the rescuers would find everyone alive and well within that 96-hour window.

Looking back, I had that nagging feeling that the sub imploded on the way down and nobody survived. I pushed that idea out of my mind as did a lot of people. The US Navy reported hearing an implosion sound on Sunday morning at about the same time the sub lost communication with the surface ship. They then clarified their statement as inconclusive. They knew what happened but didn't want to discourage anyone from looking for survivors because we all wanted to believe the 5 people in the sub could still be alive.

Tuesday and Wednesday we hear a story from searchers saying they heard banging sounds every 30 minutes. This is something that would happen if the people were sitting on the floor of the ocean inside the Titan sub tangled in the Titanic wreck. While we don't know the source of the sound, it gave everyone hope. We all wanted to believe in a miracle.

Thursday afternoon, the US Coast Guard held a press conference letting everyone know they had found pieces of the Titan sub on the floor of the ocean. They mentioned they found Titan's tail cone. I heard that but still had hope because it is a part meant to be ejected from the sub. Next they mentioned the rails that the sub sits on while on solid ground. Again, I had hope because the rails are not required to keep the hull of the sub intact. Finally they mentioned they found the front nose dome and all hope was lost that there would be any survivors. The only good news to come from the US Coast Guard press conference was closure to the story and knowing approximately what happened to the occupants inside the sub.

Today is Saturday and I have gone to a few news sources seeing if we know more about what happened. We can speculate but won't know for sure until a thorough analysis is completed. This will require finding as many pieces of the sub as possible, bringing them to the surface, and having engineers examine them to reconstruct what happened. I doubt it will be much different than what we all imagine happened as we mentally picture an aluminum can getting crushed with 5 people inside. I personally hope death came quickly and nobody suffered.

I know I am not alone as someone that hoped for a miracle. Everyone else that comments on the issue confesses to hoping as well. I think that is a good thing as we want to believe in happy endings. Sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.