We choose to go in the tin

Every great voyage starts with the right vessel.

Ours is a tin. Aerodynamic, shiny, and it never complains. The committee evaluated carbon fibre, titanium and a second-hand submarine. The tin won on every criterion that matters: it is watertight, it stacks, and we already own four hundred of them.

The selection process

Every candidate hull faced three questions:

• Does it keep the ocean in?
• Does it keep the vacuum out?
• Can the canteen open it in an emergency?

The submarine failed the third test. The tin passed all three before lunch.

Critics say a tin is small. So are we. The fit is, frankly, perfect: snug at launch, roomy in orbit, and the label doubles as a mission patch.

We choose to go in the tin not because it is easy, but because it is watertight. Mostly because it is watertight.