

Ask HN: BP oil spill and US - zeynel1

united states is -the- engineering country of the world -first on the moon- landed on mars -when oil wells caught fire in saudi arabia or iraq it was us companies who knew how to stop it - when a ship founders it is us engineers who salvage it - oil industry itself started here - tallest buildings - longest bridges - this is a country built by engineers - why then doesnt the president issue an order to his engineers -money is no object stop that leak now- does anyone has an explanation why the us engineers cannot stop this leak
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angrycoder
The problem is the pressure and weight of the water combined with the
temperature a mile below the sea. Nobody knows how to build stuff that deep
under water, it is all hypothetical, unicorns and rainbows, that is the
problem.

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noonespecial
The US didn't make it to the moon overnight or mars in a week. It took years
of careful planning and failing and redoing. The oil companies promised
everything was under control and covered any lingering doubts with political
contributions (that's what we call bribes here).

The leak is so deep it may as well be in outer space. The US will come up with
a top notch oil well patching under thousands of feet of water solution, but
it will take time.

They just need to start on this solution a decade ago.

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manvsmachine
The depth at which this leak is happening elevates it to an entirely new
problem compared to any previous spill. noonespecial was right when he said it
may as well be in outer space; in fact, one of the lead engineers working on
the problem was brought in due to his research adapting mining techniques for
_off-world_ situations. Having an army of engineers in a case like this is no
more effective than mobilizing HN to tackle P vs NP.

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zeynel1
This is what I mean. It seems to me that US has lost its engineering can-do
edge. In 1955 going to the moon looked like science fiction and impossible.
But that was not a deterrent. If this leak happened 50 years ago, instead of
coming up with excuses, US would have fixed it by now.

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manvsmachine
We didn't go from zero to the moon's surface in 60 days. My point was that
this isn't a numbers game; more engineers doesn't mean things will get done
faster. Really, two months is not a long time at all considering what they are
trying to accomplish. They don't really have the luxury anymore to be able to
constantly experiment and iterate.

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ghurlman
Because once you leave hypotheticals behind, money _is_ an object.

