National Geographic via CNET

The first successful solo dive back to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was completed yesterday – Monday Guam time – by James Cameron. The joint effort between National Geographic, Rolex, and Cameron set out to explore the deepest point on Earth, some 35,756 feet below the ocean’s surface, in a custom built submersible known as the Deepsea Challenger and they succeeded!  Read more about the expedition here.  And more about that giant Rolex on his wrist here.

Find the NatGeo press release here, and highlights from the press conference here.

The Deep Sea Special (pictured above) made the trip in the Trieste back in 1960.  The watch featured a truly monstrous lens that would allow the watch to survive a depth of 35,800 feet.  James Cameron will be wearing Rolex’s new Deepsea Challenge  - named after the Deepsea Challenger sub he’ll be piloting, more on that here.  The new design features a more contemporary and streamlined design that will allow the watch to survive a depth as low as 40,000 feet below sea level.

Overall though the watch is truly a practice in futility, because if James Cameron were to venture outside his sub to give the watch a quick test he’d meet his instantaneous death.  Regardless, I suppose the watch would survive.

In the near future you’ll be able to get your hands on the Rolex Deepsea Challenge Watch ($TBA). The truly unique timepiece features a super-thick body, a black bezel, luminous markers, and water resistance down to 12,000 meters (40,000 feet).  Price sure to be through the roof. image via uncrate

Ironically, James Cameron directed the 1989 film The Abyss, prophetic to say the least seeing as he’s currently making trips into the abyss himself.  Cameron has been putting his remarkable submarine, the Deepsea Challenger, through its paces.  As recently as March 7th he recorded a depth of 5.1 miles below the oceans surface – hard to imagine.

Astonishingly, it’s been 52 years since man has last visited the depths of the Mariana Trench – located in the Western Pacific Ocean.  On the 23rd of January 1960, Jacques Piccard and American Naval officer Don Nash reached the bottom in their Bathyscaphe Trieste.  It was the first time a vessel, manned or unmanned, had reached the deepest known point of the Earth’s oceans, a truly incredible feat.  It stands to this day as a true testament of a time when man was still interested in pushing the boundaries of exploration.

The Trieste reached a depth of 35,814 ft. (6.8 miles) after descending for 4 hours and 48 minutes.  At 9,000 meters one of the outer Plexiglas window panes cracked, shaking the entire vessel – at which point I would’ve called it a day and probably had an accident in my pants – but they pushed on.  They spent twenty minutes on the ocean floor.  Due to the design of the Trieste and the propulsion systems available at the time the ship stirred up too much of the ocean floor to observe much.  But, they did see some small sole and flounder and observed that the floor of the Challenger Deep consisted of “diatomaceous ooze.”  Their ascent took 3 hours.

No manned craft has since returned to the Challenger Deep, though a Japenese robot went their in 1995 and the Nereus made it there in 2009.

The objective of the Deepsea Challenge is not to surpass the Trieste’s 50-year old deep dive title, but rather to obtain microorganisms, fish, and geological samples from the ocean floor.  If successful, James Cameron will also be the first human to travel to that great depth solo – a pretty awesome feat.  The Deepsea Challenger team isn’t the only group pushing for the bottom though, other subs are clamoring for the oceanic X Prize as well, one of which is Richard Branson’s Virgin Oceanic team.

Besides obtaining biological and geological samples the Deepsea Challenger is also outfitted to collect important oceanic data such as temperature and chemical constitution analyses as well as 3D imagery of the Challenger Deep. Putting all of the necessary equipment for scientific testing, life support systems, ballast and a human in a ship designed to descended to a depth greater than Mount Everest is high or about the cruising altitude of a passenger jet is no small feat.  That’s a lot of water to be under and water is quite heavy.  Cameron will encounter truly crushing pressures, the pressure at depth is approximately 1,099 times that at the surface, or 111 MPa, roughly 16,155 psi.  To put that into perspective, it’s about the same as putting the weight of 4 Chevy Suburbans onto a postage stamp.  Besides the crushing pressure Challenge Deep is also bathed in complete darkness and near freezing temperatures.  It’s unknown is communication will even be possible at such depths or whether the hull will remain intact – the only way of knowing the missions success may be Camerons return.  Despite the subs multiple backup systems and failsafes you can never account for all situation when exploring the unknown.

Not your typical Hollywood millionaire past time to say the least.

The steel pilot sphere for the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER—with its small circular window opening—glows red from the heat of its creation.

The Deepsea Challenger is a truly incredible submarine.  Shaped like a large green pickle and nearly 24 feet tall the ship is a testament to the accomplishments of modern technology, metallurgy and modern material engineering.  Although we are just now getting a look at the ship, it has been in the making in Australia for several years.  You don’t just design and build a deep sea diver in your garage.

The Deepsea Challenger is a collaboration between James Cameron, National Geographic, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, NASA and financial support from Rolex.  The best part for us is that National Graphics involvement means we’ll get a top notch documentary with fantastic visuals.  And I guarantee you we’ll see a Rolex Submariner adorning Cameron’s wrist.  The Deepsea Challenger is a massive improvement over the previous manned vehicle to reach such depths, the Trieste, the Deepsea Challenger will descend at a pace of around 500 feet per minute allowing Cameron ample time to explore the bottom – up to 6 hours vs. 20 minutes.

James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger vs. Trieste size comparison

The Deepsea Challenger is also designed to kick up far less ocean floor when it reaches the bottom which will allow it’s four high-def cameras, boom-lights and seven-foot LED panel to illuminate and record whatever interesting stuff is down there.  Besides technology for recording the Deepsea Challenger includes 1500 circuits powering 180 custom systems, crush-resistant buoyancy foam, a ton of lithium batteries bathed in silicon-based oil for saltwater protection and one truly cool slurp gun for picking up deepsea specimens.  The cabin walls are made of 2.5 inch thick high grade steel, hopefully thick enough to overcome the crushing weight of 7 miles of water outside.

What’s really cool is that the crushing weight of 16,155 PSI outside will actually compress the ship a few inches and there isn’t much room to give up seeing as the 43 inch spherical cabin will be stuffed full with a ton of high-tech electronics, controls, support systems, etc… and the 6′ 2″ Cameron.  In case of emergency the cabin collects moisture from perspiration and breathing that can be consumed – yum.

When the ship gets close to the ocean floor thrusters can be activated and Cameron may jettison some spherical steel ballast to reduce the subs weight and slow its descent.  At the bottom he’ll investigate tectonic plates, photograph deep sea ocean life and take samples to be analyzed upon return.  As the Deepsea Challenger’s battery life starts to dwindle Cameron will drop 1,000 pounds of steel ballast and the ship will start its rapid ascent – if the electronic system fails and the ballast won’t drop a back-up galvanic release will corrode in the seawater within a set time frame, allowing the sub to ascend.  The trip isn’t over at the top, however, Cameron will be sealed in the sub from the outside and due to horizontal travel while at the bottom it’s hard to guess exactly where he’ll end up or how easy it will be to find him if systems fail.  It could be a long day in that cramped little space without a toilet.  Luckily he’ll have that sweat water to keep him hydrated.

We wish James Cameron success on this truly fantastic feat and commend him on being a true man’s man.  It’s time for man to explore once again!