Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Would you go to the bottom of the sea in this craft?

Image: Virgin Oceanic

Only two humans have ever traveled to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, seven miles down in the Pacific Ocean off the Philippine Islands. That happened more than fifty years ago, when Lieutenant Don Walsh of the U. S. Navy and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard descended into the depths in the U.S. Navy bathyscaph Trieste, in 1960. (Nine years before the first humans set foot on the Moon.) I'm sure others have dreamed of it. (I have.)

Sometimes it takes a really rich person to pursue this kind of dream. Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, is one such person. He's paying for the completion of Virgin Oceanic's one-man submersible, in which explorer Chris Welsh will attempt the first manned follow-up to the historic Trieste dive. It looks cool as hell. But can it survive the crushing depth of the Challenger Deep? Read about it here.

And if they don't make it, maybe James Cameron and his Deepsea Challenger will. (See their very cool website.)

Deepsea Challenger