March 8th, 2012 
Folks, it’s on! Some of you may know of the “race to the bottom”, a confluence of several missions aimed at returning humans to the deepest part of the oceans, the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, south of Guam. The teams include one sponsored by Richard Branson, one from Sylvia Earle’s sub company DOER, the Triton mission and one sponsored and led by movie maker and documentarian James Cameron. Read more about it in BBC’s excellent coverage here (their diagram originally had a big question mark next to Cameron’s design, but not anymore!). The big news: Cameron announced today that not only is their sub complete but that the expedition has started and that over the next weeks they will try for the bottom in his startling new submersible. His sub is unusual in that it is a vertical design rather like the conning tower on a naval submarine, only without the submarine, an upright cylinder that will drop to the bottom like a mangrove seed and remain upright while Cameron, the only passenger, peers out a window at the bottom, illuminated with an 8 foot bank of floodlights.
Here it is in his own words:
This is incredibly exciting news for anyone entranced by deep sea exploration and thrilled at the prospects of humans returning to the deepest place on earth after 52 years (Walsh and Piccard were the only folks to ever do it, in 1960). My pulse is racing just thinking about it. Our best wishes for a successful mission and watch this space for more news!
Holy crap on a carp, I want one of those.
This is some exciting stuff. I’m all for space exploration, but deep sea is way more exciting.
I’m surprised someone hasn’t chimed in with the pessimistic “Why spend all that money to go to the (insert inhospitable destination here) when we’ve got all these problems to solve right here?
Answer: Not just because it’s there, or because we can. We redefine ourselves by doing the difficult things, just as JFK said when he announced plans to go to the moon. And that’s why we do these things, because if we don’t, we’ve placed one foot firmly in the grave. And that’s a real waste and one that should never be tolerated.
Also, it’s James Cameron’s money and he can do whatever he wants with it.
Why spend all that money to go to the Marianas Trench when we’ve got all these problems to solve right here?
JUST KIDDING. Good for James Cameron – exciting to know he may see things no human has seen before.
I have to admit this has got me on the edge of my seat! 8 years before I was born (to the day) till now to put human eyes on the bottom! Time with a bank of lights, video, photo. And we can follow along!
Wow! Amazing endeavour, and great success. Now for more exploration, right?! Cheers to James Cameron and his support team.
This is awesome, but I really hope he doesn’t sully the reverence of the deep sea by using the footage in Avatar 2
Wow, so when exactly did Luc Piccard do this? It wasn’t in any of the films. lol
Pretty cool trip in the interest of science. Good Science = Mega Bucks
[...] On the brink of Cameron being only the third person to ever visit the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, I’m reminded how much exploration and scientific inquiry of the deep sea continues to challenge our perceptions of life and how life works. Insight gained form observing and investigating deep-sea life forced us to redefine and reexamine our theories of life, and potentially increase the values of fℓ and ne. Life — and the conditions necessary for life to emerge — may not be as rare as we think. [...]
He’s nearly at the bottom, now, yet the news sites say nothing… odd