Decoding Titan: The sub that vanished with five onboard while touring Titanic

Global attention is focused on a search and rescue mission currently underway in the Atlantic Ocean centered around the wreckage of the Titanic, nearly 111 years after the colossal ship sank.

The race against time now is to find a technologically advanced submersible that has been taking tourists and crew to the iconic ocean liner's wreckage. The submersible has been missing with five crew members on board since Sunday.

The craft submerged on Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it approximately an hour and 45 minutes later. The submersible was operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

What is Titan?

Titan is a 5-person submersible used for surveying underwater regions, scientific research, and film production, capable of taking crews to depths of up to 4,000 meters.

"On its website, OceanGate states, 'Crewed submersibles provide a stable yet modular underwater solution for expediting sensitive research in deep ocean environments and testing the next generation of subsea equipment.'"

Unlike submarines that navigate independently to and from ports, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them. In the case of Titan, it is lowered below the water's surface while resting on a 30-foot recovery platform before it begins its dive sequences, following instructions from the overhead ship.

At the end of each dive, the submersible lands on the submerged platform, and the entire system is brought to the surface in approximately two minutes.

Weighing 10,432 kg, Titan is made of Carbon Fiber and Titanium, and it has a life support system capable of sustaining the crew for 96 hours. The submersible can cruise at speeds of up to 3 knots (5.5 kilometers per hour).

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It is equipped with state-of-the-art lighting, sonar navigation systems, and internally and externally mounted 4K video and photographic equipment.

The Cyclops-class manned submersible is equipped with Real Time Hull Health Monitoring (RTM) systems, which continuously monitor the integrity of the hull throughout the dive. Acoustic sensors and strain gauges on the pressure boundary monitor the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as it dives deeper.

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OceanGate has highlighted that Titan's viewport is "the largest of any deep-diving submersible" and that its technology provides an "unrivaled view" of the deep ocean.

The submersible has undergone over 50 test dives, including dives to the equivalent depth of the Titanic, in deep waters off the Bahamas, and in a pressure chamber, according to the company.

For its third and current dive, OceanGate had hired Polar Prince to transport dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site.

The submersible was planned to make multiple dives during the expedition.

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