Frequently Asked Questions - Submarine Specs
How deep will your sub go?
The hull is designed for a maximum operating depth of 350 ft. (106 m)How much is your sub going to weigh?
The final weight of the sub is going to be approximately 4000 lbs (1800 kg).How long can you stay under the water?
How long 'can' we stay, and how long 'will' we stay? Technically, we should be carrying emergency life-support for 72 hours, but the sub is very small, so I'm sure that 1-2 hours will be as long as we can stay without surfacing to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.How thick are the windows and what are they made of?
The smallest window, in the hatch, is 1" (25mm) thick. The thickest window is 2" (50mm) thick. The other 8 windows are 1.25" (32mm) thick. They are all made of cell-cast acrylic, a special kind of plexiglass.What is the hull made out of?
The main hull structure is made from A516-GR70 steel, which is a boiler-grade type of steel. The main hull section is 1/4" (6.35mm) thick, 36" (0.9m) in diameter, and 6 ft (1.83m) long. The endcaps are 3/8" (9.5mm) thick, 36" (0.9m) in diameter, and weigh approximately 140 lbs (64kg) each.How big will your sub be?
The main hull section will be approximately 8 ft (2.44m) long, and 36" (0.9m) in diameter. The overall length including ballast tanks, will be approximately 15 ft (4.6m).What type of motors will your sub have?
It will have 1 main steerable thruster motor at the tail, and 4 other smaller thruster motors used for manuvering, all electric and powered from 8 marine deep-cycle batteries.Frequently Asked Questions - Construction
Are you building your sub from a kit?
No we are not, but we do have a set of plans. All of the parts are either ordered as a basic shape (cylinder 76"x36"x1/4"), or as a raw block of metal that we are machining into specific parts, (as in the viewports and viewport frames).How much will your sub cost?
I have heard that it will cost a minimum of $15,000. We are doing all of the machining, and all of the welding, so we're hoping that it will cost less than $10,000.How will you test your sub?
The proper way to test one is to lower it un-manned down to 500 ft (152m) and leave it there for 1 hour. If it survives this, as it should, then it should be safe to use down to 350 ft (106m).When is launch day?
We wanted it to be done by the end of Summer, 2001, but since we opted to do 100% of the work ourselves, and not have other people do the machining for us, it'll likely be Spring of 2002.Frequently Asked Questions - Operational Details
What if you get stuck on the bottom?
There are a number of things to do in this case. We can contact some divers on our support boat to help us get untangled. We can also fill ballast tanks with air to make us even more buoyant. We can turn some release levers inside the sub that will drop 250 lbs (113 kg) of lead weight off the sub to make us very buoyant. And if all else fails, and we really need to get out of the sub, we can open a valve inside the sub that will flood the interior with water. Once the pressure inside equals the pressure outside, we can open the hatch and exit the sub with scuba gear.How will you launch your sub?
The boat will be launched and retrieved from a trailer the same way that a ski-boat is launched and retrieved.Frequently Asked Questions - Miscellaneous
Why are you building your sub?
Simply for the fun ( and headaches ;-) ) of building a real submarine, as well as the enjoyment of actually piloting a submarine. Also for exploring the depths of Lake Travis here in Austin TX, which is approximately 170 ft (52 m) deep.How did you learn about this?
Reading and studying books, reading the archives and exchanging notes with the people at Psubs.org.