Engineering visualization of the spherical Fathom TH-04 underwater vehicle operating above the seafloor

TH-04 Full-ocean-depth concept program

Built for the
last frontier.

Fathom is a compact, pressure-tolerant autonomous vehicle designed to operate from the surface to the deepest point in the ocean.

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0111,000 mDesign depth target
02≈650 mmFull-scale envelope
038 thrustersVectored control concept
046-DOFHolonomic mobility

01 / THE VEHICLE

No crew. No cabin.
No conventional pressure hull.

Fathom is being developed around a ceramic compute sphere, a free-flooded structure and pressure-balanced subsystems. The architecture is intended to remove the large dry volume that makes conventional deep-ocean vehicles heavy, costly and difficult to deploy.

Fathom TH-04 concept visualization with ceramic spherical body and radial thrusters
01CERAMIC
COMPUTE CORE
02VECTORED
THRUSTER ARRAY
03FREE-FLOODED
STRUCTURE
TH-04PRELIMINARY DESIGN BASIS
Depth objective
11,000 m
Pressure environment
≈1,100 bar
Vehicle envelope
Ø ≈0.65 m
Mobility concept
6-DOF holonomic
Propulsion
8× oil-filled thrusters
Primary dry volume
Ceramic sphere
Structure
Titanium / GFRP
Buoyancy
Syntactic foam

Targets shown are preliminary engineering objectives and remain subject to analysis, qualification and field testing.

02 / PRESSURE ARCHITECTURE

Survive pressure by giving it less to crush.

01

Isolate the dry core

Compute, inertial sensing and critical electronics are concentrated in a compact ceramic pressure vessel instead of a large metal cabin.

02

Balance external systems

Thrusters and compatible electronics are designed around oil filling and pressure compensation, minimizing differential pressure.

03

Flood the structure

The external frame is intended to flood freely. It carries sensors, propulsion and buoyancy without pretending to be a submarine hull.

04

Control every axis

A radial thruster layout is designed to hold position, translate and rotate without the turning radius of a torpedo-form vehicle.

03 / BUILD SEQUENCE

Designed on paper.
Proved in pressure.

Thalor’s next work is physical: refine the package, validate the pressure boundary, build the full-scale article and put it in the water. Each stage exists to retire a specific engineering risk.

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  1. 01
    COMPLETE

    Concept architecture

    Vehicle geometry, pressure strategy and system-level design basis.

  2. 02
    ACTIVE

    Quarter-scale investor model

    Physical communication model for packaging, access and vehicle form.

  3. 03
    NEXT

    Pressure coupons and prototype

    Ceramic sphere qualification followed by a full-scale integrated article.

  4. 04
    PLANNED

    Controlled-water trials

    Progressive depth, autonomy and multi-vehicle test campaigns.

THALOR TECH

The ocean does not need another concept video.
It needs hardware.

We are building toward autonomous systems that can inspect, map and persist where crewed operations become impractical.

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