[HN Gopher] Survival Capsule
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Survival Capsule
Author : poppypetalmask
Score : 70 points
Date : 2021-05-04 07:34 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (survival-capsule.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (survival-capsule.com)
| teeray wrote:
| Sooner or later, one of these is going over Niagara Falls
| spicybright wrote:
| There's a video on the site of one going over a 200ft water
| fall.
|
| I mean maybe, you can barely see it. And there's nothing
| inside, no camera. And they don't show what it looks like
| after.
|
| This is like a kickstarter project before kickstarters.
| ArnoVW wrote:
| Am I the only one that had the version of the Yes Men [2010] in
| mind?
|
| https://youtu.be/_3a3XBnMe5Q
| toss1 wrote:
| Looks basically like a tube-frame for a GT racecar, rebuilt as a
| sphere.
|
| It has supplies of air and storage for a week of food.
|
| But the feature list seems to lack any provision for handling
| human waste, or any kind of radio beacon.
|
| It won't do you much good to survive the tsunami, get washed out
| to sea, and then sit idly on the waves for weeks after your food
| runs out because no one can find you or is even looking because
| you broadcast no long-range signal... Maybe I'm missing
| something?
| spicybright wrote:
| You're not missing anything here. It's poorly thought out at
| best. Dangerous false sense of security at worst.
| tengbretson wrote:
| The fact that Gavin Belson was never featured with one of these
| things in Silicon Valley is a huge missed opportunity.
| strict9 wrote:
| The survival capsule site is awesome and looks like a time
| capsule from five years ago. No updates to news or Youtube
| channel since then.
|
| I always wonder about websites stuck in time like this. Someone
| is paying for the bandwidth and site maintenance, yet no effort
| toward new sales/marketing.
|
| I have a few mostly abandoned side projects in which I
| periodically renew the certs, update packages, and pay monthly
| hosting only because I can't bring myself to shut it down.
|
| Wonder what the story is for the Survival Capsule.
| bombcar wrote:
| Often these types of sites are outsourced to a site-development
| company and they become just one of a large number of sites in
| their "portfolio" that they're maintaining - and they often
| have no clear process on how to stop maintaining, especially
| for things like plain hosting, etc.
| [deleted]
| jvanderbot wrote:
| This is wonderful. The optional features include surround-sound
| music and a dry-powder toilet. Could almost be an April Fools
| article.
|
| I can see this for hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, shockwaves
| from nuclear attacks.
|
| Not so much for earthquakes.
| davmar wrote:
| Well, if there's a nuclear attack I want to be the first to
| die. Can you imagine what the world would be like after a
| nuclear war? Count me out.
| 7952 wrote:
| "The sphere will withstand the initial impact of a natural
| disaster, as well as sharp object penetration, heat exposure,
| blunt object impact, and rapid deceleration."
|
| But will the occupents survive?
| AstralStorm wrote:
| Not unscathed they won't, as there is no/insufficient padding
| in this design. It smells of reinventing a square wheel, or in
| this case, replacing a bigger rectilinear cellar with a small
| sphere.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| Not if you do rapid deceleration at a serious level. The sphere
| might still look perfect, but whoever is inside will be very
| much dead. The ironic part is that they would survive better if
| the sphere wasn't as rigid and would deform, taking part of the
| forces.
|
| Of course someone already researched what happens if you put
| humans in a full body harness and stop them quickly:
| https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/hsl_pdf/2003/hsl03-09.pdf
| Ancapistani wrote:
| Weirdly, it has 4-point restraints inside. That makes little
| sense to me, with it being a sphere. Those restraints are
| great if the force happens to hit in the correct direction;
| otherwise by far the biggest risk is going to be neck injury.
|
| Given that there are seats facing each other, you're all but
| guaranteed to have at least half of the occupants injured in
| a hard collision.
| axiosgunnar wrote:
| What if the capsule gets stuck with the door on to bottom and
| unable to wiggle?
| donio wrote:
| Get me to the pod!
|
| https://youtu.be/XkU1LFgKS9Y?t=64
| ModernMech wrote:
| "Survival Capsule LLC is an intellectual property company
| developing survival solutions for natural disasters."
|
| "The Survival Capsule is patented as a personal safety system
| (PSS), designed as a sphere to protect against tsunami events,
| tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and storm surges."
|
| So are they building these or are they just building an IP
| portfolio to use for licensing? Looks like they are taking "pre
| orders" but the latest news is from 2017, and nothing has been
| posted on their YouTube channel for 5 years.
| kingsuper20 wrote:
| Coming up, the designer of the 'Survival Capsule' is placed in
| the path of a hurricane to demonstrate his concept.
|
| Hilarity ensues.
| apocalypstyx wrote:
| I'm thinking of a new version of the Twilight Zone episode _The
| Shelter_ , except it's one of these floating around and
| everyone's trying to break in, break it open, etc.
| yalogin wrote:
| Somewhat tangentially related, if some item with a lid claims to
| be waterproof or airtight, are there standards for it?
| Specifically can we count on it to be bug/pest proof? I would
| expect something like this survival bunker to be bug proof
| obviously, but are there grades to being waterproof and airtight
| and is it possible that the products on the lower end of the
| spectrum might let bugs in?
| Jolter wrote:
| There are standards for that, yes.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code
| zdkl wrote:
| > The IP Code, or Ingress Protection Code,[1] sometimes
| referred to as International Protection Code, IEC standard
| 60529 classifies and rates the degree of protection provided by
| mechanical casings and electrical enclosures against intrusion,
| dust, accidental contact, and water.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code
| cmccart wrote:
| There's the IP code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code) but
| I've only seen it used with respect to devices. It's unclear
| (to me) if it would cover something like this.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Underestimates the force of a true natural disaster. Sure this
| looks good rolling around on your lawn. But the only sure way to
| survive a natural disaster, is to get out of the way.
| echelon wrote:
| Being stuck in one of these during a tsunami does not seem like a
| good idea.
|
| If a large mass of debris collided with the capsule, the water
| tight seal or structure itself could become compromised. You'd
| then be left drowning in a capsule.
|
| If the capsule is buried, how do they find you?
| thesuitonym wrote:
| All things being equal, I think I'd rather be in one of these
| than in the open.
| AstralStorm wrote:
| For this price, you can build a proper cyclone cellar with
| drainage, ventillation and most importantly escape hardware.
|
| This thing is a coffin if it ever gets under debris, and a
| floating/drowning coffin if it gets into water. Bonus points
| if you end up tossed and upside down.
| thesuitonym wrote:
| That's a good point. When I made my comment, I hadn't seen
| the price yet! I was thinking somewhere in the ballpark of
| 5k.
| wongarsu wrote:
| Actual life boats contain lots of foam so they stay buoyant
| even flooded with water. From what I can tell this capsule
| depends solely on the air inside to stay floating. I agree that
| that's probably a bad idea.
|
| Maybe better than nothing, but certainly not the best money can
| buy
| cyberge99 wrote:
| A metal detector?
|
| Jokes aside, I didn't see anything about breathable
| oxygen/nitrogen.
|
| Perhaps I missed it.
| mathgorges wrote:
| It's listed under standard features on the product page:
|
| > Air Supply Tanks (one for each occupant)
| ashtonbaker wrote:
| A scuba tank is like an hour of air for a person, less if
| you're stressed - and that doesn't look as large as a scuba
| tank.
| exabrial wrote:
| This is probably the dumbest and least safe ways to take shelter
| from a Tornado. I mean first, they move at whopping 10mph-25mph
| and have a very very narrow damage path (most are less than a
| hundred yards). Every number of years you'll get a mega tornado
| somewhere, but those are rare events. Nearly all deaths in
| tornados are from people being where they are not supposed to be
| (first floors, or in a car) or not paying attention to weather
| warnings.
|
| If you _had_ to, you _could_ simply move locations away from a
| tornado. If you move at 45degree angles to prevailing winds, for
| instance here in Kansas, that would be west or south, you could
| sidestep the mesocyclone. If you move northeast, you would
| increase the time for the mesocyclone to catch you. This is NOT
| recommended for obvious reasons: If everyone in a neighborhood
| tried to leave at once, a traffic jam would instantly form, and a
| car is the worst place to be. But still, if you had no other
| options, there you go.
|
| The simplest form of shelter is a basement and is highly
| effective. Or on most new slab houses built in my state today,
| there's usually one room made of CMUs and has a timber ceiling (A
| 'safe room'). Even if you have a slab house, there are plastic
| tornado shelters you bury and provide ample protection if you
| _actually_ bought a house without a basement in Kansas.
|
| This thing is the worst of all options: You can't move, you're
| trapped in it, it's above ground so it's susceptible to damage
| from flying debris (The main hazard in a tornado), it's not
| secured so you're going to be in a bouncing tornado hamster ball,
| and it it rolls onto it's door, good luck getting out.
|
| Really the only use would be protect from flood events.
| spicybright wrote:
| And even then, something perfectly round is the worst boat
| design I can imagine. You're going to be spinning constantly.
| Does anybody really want to be stuck in a ball with barf all
| over the walls?
|
| You're spot on with people being where they shouldn't be.
| That's 99% of natural disasters.
| teddyh wrote:
| "One day I saw a newspaper headline reporting that the President
| suggested that if Americans had to buy their bomb shelters,
| rather than being provided with them by the government, they'd
| take better care of them, an idea which made me furious.
| Logically, each of us should own a submarine, a jet fighter, and
| so forth."
|
| -- Philip K. Dick, describing his inspiration for the short story
| _Foster, You 're Dead!_, written in 1955. Full text available:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20150419181303/http://american-b...
| btbuildem wrote:
| So, ideally, this floats? I imagine it being as heavy as possible
| while still buoyant would be an advantage (say, in a high wind
| scenario).
| titanomachy wrote:
| Probably floats. It looks like at least 1.5 m in diameter,
| which means it displaces ~2 metric tonnes of water; so as long
| as it weighs less than that (~4000 lbs, including occupants)
| then it will float.
| pixelbreaker wrote:
| This assumes of course that one wants to survive.
| throwaway_dcnt wrote:
| Are you okay?
| final_approach wrote:
| I think this idea of survival rather than living is rather an
| unfortunate characteristic of our time. People need to rewatch
| that german movie called "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". All you
| need is to go see the sea.
| imglorp wrote:
| What happens if it comes to rest hatch down. You can't always
| count on help in a mass disaster.
| Ancapistani wrote:
| It's just aluminum - be sure to grab a portable angle grinder
| before hopping in, I suppose :)
| Ancapistani wrote:
| It makes at least some sense from the perspective of someone
| living where tornadoes are a common occurrence.
|
| But only "some". It could be made significantly cheaper than
| traditional shelters because it's made of aluminum, but there
| should be a way to anchor it to the ground - I have no desire to
| go bouncing around through a tornado, thank you very much.
|
| The 4-person model is $17,500? I can get a larger traditional
| underground shelter for ~$8k installed. If I were in an area
| without the ability to dig down into the ground or where flooding
| was a major concern, this would be more attractive I suppose. As
| it is, it's just spending 2-4x the money on an inferior solution.
| aplummer wrote:
| Wouldn't a sphere be a problem? I can imagine a lot of
| unintentionally rolling downhill.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utsuro-bune
| guerrilla wrote:
| Fascinating. Clearly a time traveler. :)
| chrisbigelow wrote:
| A A four-person model lists for $17,500.
|
| I'd much rather have a used lifeboat[1] for $8,000 that can hold
| 20+ persons.
|
| [1] https://commercial.apolloduck.com/boat/commercial-vessels-
| li...
| anotha1 wrote:
| Sure, but this seems way more space-friendly. I don't know
| about the available space in Japan, but I'd have nowhere to fit
| a boat that only holds ten people, and I live so close to the
| water I can see it from my window.
|
| Edit: I've also seen five drunk people capsize a dingy boat
| just trying to board it. So I'd hate to take my chances with
| anything that could capsize in a tsunami, where fast moving
| debris could crush or trap you the second you hit the water.
| chipsa wrote:
| Lifeboats are designed to be difficult to capsize (totally
| enclosed with enough floatation to stay above water even if
| flooded).
| anotha1 wrote:
| Gotcha, I was imagining more Titanic-style than say those
| on modern day cruise ships.
| apocalypstyx wrote:
| The problem is, in the case of an emergency, the owner might be
| unable to get to their capsule in time. However, if they added
| some kind of 'arm port' which would allow the user to stick their
| arm into a reinforced sleeve and glove and reach out, along with
| a mini 'airlock' to allow for shuttling things in and out safely,
| the owner could reside in one indefinitely, thus eliminating this
| window of danger.
| jpalomaki wrote:
| The YesMen thought about this with their "Survivaball" [1],
| [2]. See [3] for presentation of their "innovation".
|
| [1]https://theyesmen.org/project/halliburton [2]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men#New_York_Post_and_...
| [3] https://theyesmen.org/project/halliburton/talk
| void-star wrote:
| For anyone not already familiar with this, do yourself a
| favor and at least search up some visuals on the
| "Survivaball". I love love the Yes Men!!!
| jpalomaki wrote:
| Somebody has posted to YouTube a video where the Yes Men
| introduce Survivaball in a LexisNexis conference,
| pretending to be a from Halliburton.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3a3XBnMe5Q
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| Or you could dress like the
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Man
| the_local_host wrote:
| Name checks out.
| tyingq wrote:
| Does it mention how the air vents work? They keep mentioning
| tsunami, but I'm unclear on how a sphere with air vents would
| work floating around in rough water. For that matter, does it
| even float upright?
| hsnewman wrote:
| That is the most stupid product I've seen.
| unixhero wrote:
| Hey at least it has a power dry toilet.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| And an optional surround sound music system!
| spicybright wrote:
| You can play "Rock You Like A Hurricane" in an actual
| hurricane!
| saalweachter wrote:
| I think I'd prefer a single tinny speaker playing the Ink
| Spots.
| ffhhj wrote:
| Too bad spheres rotate and occupants will be sideways or
| upside down.
| Supermancho wrote:
| A network of these would have been a better design than giant
| arks depicted in 2012.
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