Titan submersible’s $62 SanDisk memory card found undamaged at wreckage site
64 comments
·October 17, 2025jonas21
jeffrallen
Does not leave SubC in a particularly flattering light...
RandomBK
I see a lot of discussion in this thread stemming from some confusion+not reading the actual report[0].
Some key points:
1. The Camera+Card was encased in a separate enclosure made of titanium+sapphire, and did not seem to be exposed to extreme pressures.
2. The encryption was done via a variant of LUKS/dm-crypt, with the key stored on the ARM TrustZone NVRAM of a chip.
3. The recovery was done by transplanting the original chip onto a new working board. No manufacturer backdoors or other hidden mechanisms were used.
4. Interestingly, the camera vendor didn't seem to realize there was any encryption at all.
[0] https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=18741602&Fi...
Keeblo
Unless I misread the article, the key was stored in the NVRAM and not the TrustZone.
IIRC, the article stated that if the key(s) had been stored in the TrustZone then the data would have been irrecoverable.
nxobject
If the encryption was that easy to bypass, was it worth it at all?
siliconunit
also basically if enough companies agrees on helping the cause your crypto secrets are quite more likely to be exposed...
yread
Isnt the weakness here that there was nothing encrypting the actual key? On a laptop luks key stored in a tpm would usually be encrypted using your passphrase
XorNot
The NTSB report noted that if the TrustZone secure enclave system was being used, then yeah this data would be toast.
But it speaks more to Oceangstrs negligence that this situation even existed: why wasn't any potential encryption keys escrowed ashore to ensure they could be recovered later? This shouldn't have even been an issue.
dmix
Since not everyone reads articles:
> Somewhat disappointingly, the images and videos shared in the report were taken in the vicinity of the ROV shop at the Marine Institute, also in Newfoundland. The location was the logistical base for Titanic dive missions. No deep-sea shenanigans around the Titanic wreck were revealed.
intothemild
It continues to amaze me how indestructible SDCards are.
gruez
It's a solid piece of silicon encased in epoxy, so there's nothing really to get crushed. Contrast this to something like a cellphone that's made of hundreds of separate parts and has void space that will get crushed.
null
pfdietz
This comment made me wonder how much easier proximity fuzes would have been to develop in WW2 had they had transistors (or integrated circuits). I assume making modern solid state electronics 20,000g shock resistant is much easier than doing the same to vacuum tubes.
MadnessASAP
No need to wonder, proximity fuzes are still used today. And yes, they are much smaller, cheaper, more reliable, and precise.
amelius
Why isn't a cellphone filled with epoxy?
scrumper
Well, most cellphones aren't subjected to the conditions found under three miles of frigid sea water. Epoxy is also really, really expensive.
dotancohen
> Why isn't a cellphone filled with epoxy?
Towaway69
Thermal concerns perhaps - how does epoxy dissipate heat?
tom_alexander
How would you do screen replacement? That is a common repair since people drop their phones and currently you can get your phone repaired by some teenager in a booth at the mall. If you fill the phone with epoxy, how are you detaching the screen, and getting a new ribbon cable through the epoxy?
userbinator
I'm sure there are some companies who want to do that, as long as they can convince people it's better for security or something.
0_____0
The GoPro Session actually took this tack to achieve waterproofness without a secondary case.
jjk166
When was the last time your phone stopped working due mechanical PCB damage?
Typically the limiting factor on your phone is the screen breaking, your battery life getting too short, wear and tear on components like buttons or the charging port, and factory defects. Epoxy isn't going to help with any of those. The only thing it would help with is exposure to water, but if other parts of your phone like your screen aren't water proof, what's the point?
Epoxy adds weight and manufacturing cost. It introduces design challenges as you need to balance the thermal expansion of the various parts. It's an extra step that can go wrong, and makes repair of other defects far more difficult. What benefit is there for the typical consumer that outweighs these costs?
null
dylan604
So that's the next phase of making devices thinner? /s
imploded_sub
It wasn't in the crushed part, it was in the camera's shell, and the camera was mounted outside, if I understood properly.
netsharc
And:
> This still and video camera is rated to withstand depths up to 6,000m (19,685 feet, 3,281 fathoms)
Unlike the Titan sub...
3eb7988a1663
The picture looks like the camera + storage SD card were in a sealed metal tube that was untouched.
userbinator
Heat and wear are the greatest dangers to flash memory, and this was found in a cold dark place, with presumably plenty of life remaining.
reaperducer
It continues to amaze me how indestructible SDCards are.
Until they're sold as supplemental hard drives (cough Transcend Jetdrive cough). Then they'll fail if you even look at them strangely.
Gigachad
Put one in a Raspberry pi and it will be dead in a month.
stefan_
The SDCard that was in another sub, properly constructed from titanium not carbon. The sub housed a camera, no humans.
gompertz
It also amazes me how incredibly unbrowseable tomshardware is now with all the ads and pop-ups.
haunter
It also amazes me that people are using the internet w/o an adblocker in the year 2025
Gigachad
I haven’t bothered working out how to install one on mobile. I just don’t visit websites with shitty ads.
bookofjoe
I think you mean HN readers.
1oooqooq
i was also in shock, then someone reminded me there are iphone users.
the horror.
paying thousands of dollars just to be forbidden to block ads.
pwg
With UblockOrigin blocking the ads, there were no ads and pop-ups.
null
asimovDev
is this a common setup to have the camera store to external storage device without storing to the SD card as well?
malux85
Yes because external storage is much larger, and theres nothing more annoying than being in the middle of doing some science with 30 other bits of complex equipment, and then the camera stops working with storage full errors and youre 7000m underwater in a cramped sub trying to navigate a camera UI to find the setting.
Configure your systems so they are in the configuration that is less likely to cause random disruption in the field.
3eb7988a1663
Which makes me wonder why they bother with the SD card at all. What was it meant to be storing? If it is not intended to be the real storage area, why not just have it in a loop, constantly over-writing the oldest material?
aucisson_masque
They probably used it for testing only, hence why it had irrelevant footage.
They might have forgot to remove or just didn't care.
Hamuko
But how did anyone figure out it was a SanDisk SD card? Card details were redacted.
matja
Presumably because it looks identical to a Sandisk extreme pro 512gb, with grey boxes drawn over the logo.
Macha
There's only 3 manufacturers of SD cards in any volume, you can compare the branding and font choices and see who's it is.
serf
SanDisk is one of the big three on SD-3C/SD Association.. so kinda regardless of the MFG it's 'one of theirs' in a roundabout way.
The NTSB's original report has more detail on how the SD Card was encrypted and how the NTSB managed to decrypt it:
https://data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Document/docBLOB?ID=18741602&Fi...