James Cameron and his Deepsea Challenger vehicle exploring Earth's last frontier.
Oscar- winning director James Cameron, who is known for blockbuster movies, like, Titanic, Avatar and the Abyss, has recently made history when he himself starred in a real drama scientific expedition by going down solo to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
In collaboration with the National Geographic Society, Cameron went down in a high-tech vessel, the Deepsea Challenger, which he and a group of scientists and engineers constructed in Australia over the past eight years.
The conquered site called Challenger Deep is part of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean that is said to be more than 10,900 meters (about 35,900 feet) and considered to be the deepest known point in the world’s ocean. The Mariana Trench is to ocean as what Mt. Everest is to land.
The descent, reportedly, took two hours and 36 minutes. Outfitted with special cameras and robotic arms, Deepsea Challenger is able to dive vertically at speeds of 500 to 700 feet per minute and can withstand immense pressure — up to 16,000 pounds per square inch.
Cameron then spent hours at the bottom of the trench collecting samples for research that will allow scientists around the world to learn about the habitat and life forms at that depth.
There have only been two other explorers that have reached the floor of the Mariana Trench. They are Jacques Piccard, a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh. Together, 52 years ago, they explored the deepest part of the world’s ocean in Piccard designed bathyscaphe, now named the Trieste.
Unlike Deepsea Challenger, the bathyscaphe carried no scientific equipment and no experiments were conducted; the mission’s purpose was merely to prove that the depth could be reached.
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