The Inside Story of Virgin Oceanic's Mission To the Mariana Trench

the_newsbeagle writes "Millionaire adventurer Chris Welsh, the driving force behind Virgin Oceanic, wants to name his sub "Scarlett" after Scarlett Johansson—that's how sexy this vehicle is. Welsh plans to pilot the experimental, cutting-edge sub to the bottom of the Mariana Trench sometime this year, in what would be only the second human descent to the deepest spot in the world's oceans (the first trip down was in 1960). This inside account of the Virgin Oceanic mission describes a team fueled by ego, science, and derring-do, and explains how their high-tech sub could usher in a new kind of marine exploration. The article also tells the story of an adventure on the high seas last summer, when Welsh & co visited the trench to test some robotic deep-sea landers... and ran smack into a typhoon."

Comments

Re:So, "cutting edge"

[bananaquackmoo]

The thing about that is just because something is more complex does not make it more of an accomplishment.

Quartz dome

[SixDimensionalArray]

I was interested in the sub's specs - the glass cockpit "dome" is apparently made of quartz. The only other subs with these kinds of domes that I've seen that can get to these depths without being crushed by the enormous pressures use some type of borosilicate glass. My understanding is the only difference between the two types of glass is the amount of silica (SiO2) in them.

Looks like a race to the bottom - I think the other company was Triton submarines that used the borosilicate glass domes. Whatever it is - it is fascinating to see the use of these materials which actually get stronger under pressure!

Re:So, "cutting edge"

[Lando]

Bathyscaphe, submarine, does it matter. The bathyscaphe was autonomous, it had not connection to the surface and had propellers to move it around. This is likely tied to the article they had a few weeks/months back about being the first to get to the bottom. Sounds like it's just trying to drum up publicity, but knowing that people know about the previous visit they are not saying it's the first any longer. Actually the previous was about some Chinese submersibles I think. It's interesting, but just wanted to point out that differences are minor versus major as the above comment tries to assert.