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Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by zzalpha on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @04:48PM (#9735186)
Sounds like an opportunity to develop simpler, cheaper, more reliable closed-circuit technology, no?

Or is there something fundamental about the paradigm that makes that impossible?

Re:The Increasing Scarcity of Helium by nradov on Wednesday June 17, 2015 @05:04PM (#9735304)
Closed-circuit rebreather technology is already about as simple as it can get, but there is a fundamental minimum complexity that will always be higher than open-circuit. You will always need multiple O₂ sensors (for redundancy), probably a CO₂ sensor, control electronics, batteries, solenoids, scrubber, readouts, etc. Those items are usually quite reliable but they still introduce additional failure points and risk of operator error.