Ask HN: BP oil spill and US
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
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.
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.
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.
Because once you leave hypotheticals behind, money is an object.