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Situation

Title text: We're right under the flight path for the scheduled orbital launch, but don't worry--it's too cold out for the rockets to operate safely, so I'm sure they'll postpone.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a Shark, the iceberg of the sea - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

This comic depicts a situation involving multiple pieces of infrastructure: a ship, sailing towards icebergs, which is tethered to an airship flying next to a power plant towards a bridge. Each of these are labelled with details that clearly reference famous disasters, all of which were caused (at least in part) by design failures. All of these incidents are common case studies for engineers studying how things can go very wrong. The implication is that, by putting them all together, most engineers would be highly concerned with the potential for catastrophe.

"Unsinkable Ocean Liner" refers to the RMS Titanic.

The Titanic was a British ocean liner which famously sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. It was the largest ship in operation at the time, and was called "unsinkable" due to its size and much-lauded design features. The ship struck an iceberg on the fourth day of its first voyage, breaching the hull and ultimately causing it to sink, resulting in 1,496 deaths. Multiple design inadequacies (although none without precedent in contemporary vessels) were afterwards identified as contributing to the rapid speed of the ship sinking and to the high loss of life. These included: too few life boats; inadequate steering ability; compartments lacking watertight ceilings and therefore allowing the water levels within to top over into previously unaffected sections.

"Hydrogen-filled [...] Airship [...]" refers to the Hindenburg Disaster.

The Hindenburg was a German airship which used hydrogen as a lifting gas. In 1937, during a landing in New Jersey, the ship caught fire and the flammable hydrogen quickly ignited, causing the ship to crash and resulting in 36 deaths. While the origins of the fire are still debated, the dangers of using large amounts of flammable gas in airships were made dramatically clear.

Ironically, the airship in the comic appears to have been commissioned for the purpose of mitigating iceberg risks (unless 'iceberg spotting' is for the purpose of steering the 'Unsinkable Ocean Liner' towards icebergs, perhaps as a tourist attraction).

"Soviet Era Nuclear Reactor Undergoing a Turbine Test" refers to the Chernobyl Disaster.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is located near the city of Pripyat, in Ukraine (part of the Soviet Union at the time of the disaster). On 26 April 1986, a reactor core partially melted during a turbine test. This led to an explosion, causing a massive release of radiation. This incident remains the worst nuclear accident to date. The cause of the disaster was determined to have resulted from a combination of uncommon circumstances and human error, which the reactor wasn't designed to account for.

The number of fatalities from the disaster is difficult to calculate; two people died from the initial damage, twenty-eight more from acute radiation sickness, and fifteen people who were directly exposed developed terminal thyroid cancer. The radiation, however, spread far beyond the plant itself, and the number of premature deaths ultimately attributable to subsequent exposure can't be calculated directly, though most estimates are easily in the thousands.

"Bridge Prone to Aeroelastic Flutter in High Winds" refers to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a suspension bridge in the U.S. state of Washington, was initially built in 1940. From the time of its construction, the bridge was observed to sway and flutter in high winds, and was nicknamed "Galloping Gertie". About four months after opening, in 40 mile-per-hour (64 km/h) winds, the bridge fluttered so violently that it collapsed into the strait. There were no human fatalities, though several people were injured. This collapse is frequently used to demonstrate the dangers of harmonic vibration in infrastructure, particularly structures exposed to strong winds. The bridge was eventually rebuilt, with a redesign intended to prevent such fluttering.

The title text refers to the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.

The Challenger was an American space shuttle which broke up shortly after its launch in 1986, killing all seven crew members aboard before reaching orbit. The disaster was caused by a failure of O-ring seals on one of the shuttle's rocket boosters and the subsequent leak of hot gases. The likely cause of these failures was the seals being unable to maintain their integrity due to being well below their design temperature range in the immediate lead-up to being exposed to launch conditions, thanks to much colder than normal weather in the launch area. Engineers for the company that had built the boosters raised this concern and recommended postponing the launch, but were overruled.

As illustrated, it appears that the ship is about to sail under the bridge, while the airship will fly over it, causing the tether between the two to snag the bridge unless the airship descends sufficiently before then. It is not clear how or if the reactor will contribute to the resulting incident.

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[An airship flying, labeled:]

Hydrogen-filled scout airship for iceberg spotting

[The airship is chained to a ship, going along a river, labeled:]

Unsinkable ocean liner

[In the background on the coast a nuclear power plant, labeled:]

Soviet-era nuclear reactor undergoing a turbine test

[The boat and airship are steering towards a bridge, labeled:]

Bridge prone to aeroelastic flutter in high winds

[Two unlabeled icebergs are on the water on either side of the bridge.]

[Caption below the panel:]

In retrospect, we should have noticed how nervous the situation was making the engineers.

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