Five people are currently missing after a tourist submarine called the Titan attempted to search for the wreckage of HMS Titanic. We still don’t know why contact was lost, but the urgent search now underway has people pouring over every detail of OceanGate Expeditions’ voyage and how the sub was built for it, including the past use of a cheap old controller for Logitech games since 2010. .
The search for the deep-sea vessel is being led by the US Coast Guard. Like Associated Press reports, contact was lost on June 18, nearly two hours after Titan’s descent. This trek was his third trip, taking wealthy tourists to see the ruins of the famous British passenger ship from 1912. The “mission support fee” for the last trip was $250,000 per person, and an adviser to the company that operates the Titan, said AP that there is a 96-hour oxygen supply. It can also only be opened from the outside, even if it returns to the surface on its own. Rescue teams are now racing to prepare another submersible to try to reach the same depth as the Titan when it lost contact.
Meanwhile, people online are analyzing details of the submarine’s construction. This has led many to a 2022 CBS Sunday Morning profile of OceanGate Expeditions and its subsidiary, in which CEO Stockton Rush discusses all the “off-the-shelf components” the company has been able to use to outfit the Titan. One of them appeared to be a modified Logitech G Wireless Gamepad F710, a $50 third-party Xbox 360 game controller released in 2010 that Rush was holding during a tour of the submarine.
Was the Titan submarine searching for the Titanic, controlled with an old game controller?
“This sub seems to have some elements of MacGyver-y jerry rigged ness,” CBS reporter David Pogue said during the segment. “I mean, you’re putting in construction pipes as ballast.” At the time, Rush seemed unphased. “I don’t know if I would use that description, but there are some things you want to be buttoned up,” he said at the time.
It is unclear whether the Titan was still using the Logitech F710 on its last expedition a year later, or whether there were backup navigation instruments on board. Photos from the OceanGate Expeditions website of a Travel in 2021 show the 2010 controller sitting on board in one of the shots. However, a different picture from another gallery shows Rush holding what looks like a modified Xbox controller that probably has a small screen built into it. And in an early videoa member of the company even demonstrated the design using a DualShock controller for the PlayStation 3.
Of course, modified controllers have long been used outside of gaming for everything from deadly weapons of war to futuristic science experiments. A fertility clinic recently reported using the PlayStation 5 DualSense to perform the first ever in vitro fertilization by a robot. Back in 2018, the US military switched from expensive custom joysticks to Xbox 360 controllers for the then newest attacking pod precisely because Microsoft’s gamepads were cheap and easy to replace. Released in 2005, the old controllers are still around reportedly part of the Defense Department’s 2024 budget request.
It’s important to note that while there’s still no confirmation that Titan used a modified $50 controller, there’s also no indication that using one would pose a major safety risk, or evidence that OceanGate somehow cheapened the submarine’s construction . The controller itself has very good reviews on sites like Amazon. There are probably many other things that could go wrong instead, including any number of unexpected environmental conditions miles beneath the North Atlantic.
While some of Titan’s components may not be ready, Rush stressed during the 2022 interview that others, such as the pressure-sealed hull, were made with the help of NASA and Boeing. “Everything else can fail,” he said. “Thrusters can work, your lights can work, you’ll still be safe.” Hopefully so.