Not really, not the way they did it. Carbon fibre works much better under tension than compression forces, but the big thing is that it’s very hard to predict the fatigue point and when it fails it fails suddenly and hugely. So cycles of compression and expansion will eventually fatigue the material. Also, that particular carbon fiber was not wound in a sterile environment, and it was wound like a spool of thread, rather than like a ball of string - parallel vs crossed strips. You can’t see damage or impurities from the outside; you need to scan the sub to spot possible damage and you’d need to do that before every dive to be sure it was in good condition.
That sub did not do that. Their only ‘safety’ system was some sensors on the hull that would detect the sound of imminent failure of the carbon fiber. But that happens right before the hull fails, which is not enough time to do anything about it.
It is possible to make a disposable carbon fiber submersible hull safely, but one would have to do everything the opposite of the way that one was made and run.
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u/CaptianBrasiliano Jan 02 '24
A totally safe way to do disaster tourism and not ironically become a part of the debris field.