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Seems this guy lives the life of exploration and innovation. Mankind will never stop. Even when we migrate off this 3rd rock from the sun.

Dallas businessman Victor Vescovo became the deepest diving human in history when his Five Deeps Expedition reached the bottom of the Pacific Ocean's Challenger Deep on April 28, the expedition disclosed Monday.

Vescovo, who has been on a years-long journey to reach the deepest points in each of the planet's five oceans, spent more than four hours in the basin of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point in the ocean.

"We have indeed built and perfected a submersible that can easily and reliably take two people to the bottom of the any point on Earth, even the Challenger Deep," Vescovo told The Dallas Morning News. "This will allow for an unprecedented level of access for scientists and others to explore the ocean, increase our understanding of it, and hopefully make life better and richer in the future."

The last time a human visited the Challenger Deep was Canadian filmmaker James Cameron, who reached a depth of 35,756 feet in his submersible in 2012. The 53-year-old Vescovo descended to 35,853 feet, according to the expedition.

Vescovo's team, The Five Deeps Expedition, completed four dives to the Challenger Deep and one additional dive at another point in the deep sea trench. While at the deepest depths known to humans, the expedition team surveyed and mapped the region with state-of-the-art sonar technology as well as collected scientific samples for future study.

The team was able to identify and record at least three new species of marine animal while in Challenger Deep's virtually unexplored hadal zone, according to the expedition. The expedition also found a plastic bag and candy wrappers on the ocean floor -– further proof that humans' plastic waste has reached even the deepest sea depths.

"This submarine and its mothership, along with its extraordinarily talented expedition team, took marine technology to an unprecedented new level by diving — rapidly and repeatedly — into the deepest, harshest area of the ocean," Vescovo said.

Having climbed the highest peak on every continent, skied to both poles and now the deepest point of four of the five oceans, Vescovo is in a league of his own. His team's final mission is the Arctic Ocean.


The expedition's submersible, with a Texas flag displayed on its exterior, is named The Limiting Factor. It's the world's deepest-diving currently operational submarine. The crew's missions in the Mariana Trench lasted 11 to 12 hours on average each dive, and the same Texas flag Vescovo carried to the peak of Mt. Everest was on board for at least one of the dives.

The Five Deeps Expedition is being filmed by Atlantic Productions for a documentary series due to air on Discovery Channel later in 2019.

"These were dives so deep that only two had been done in the last 59 years," Vescovo said. "We remarked among ourselves that we could have dived daily if we had more technicians aboard and that the sub, ironically, was not the 'limiting factor.' "

I couldn’t do that. I am not traditionally claustrophobic and I have been on a 100-150 deep tourist sub dive, but I don’t think I could handle being that deep, that confined, under all that pressure both figuratively and literally.

Good for him/his team. I am damn near getting the sweats thinking about it.

That’s pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing!

That's amazing. Thanks for the post.

quote:

We have indeed built and perfected a submersible that can easily and reliably take two people to the bottom of the any point on Earth

This statement makes me nervous.

If I was offered a free ride to the bottom of the Challenger Deep inside The Limiting Factor I’d do it in a heartbeat. That trip is akin to a visit to the moon.

What, no windows?

Never mind...

I’m with you Rusbro. I’m skittish about going where no man has gone before and safely returned many many times.

Anyone can dive that deep... Once.

You're looking at around 16,000 psi of pressure at that depth.

http://docs.bluerobotics.com/calc/pressure-depth/

Depth defying

Am I ever looking forward to this documentary. Amazing!

Insane. Not just the fact they were able to pull it off, but the fact that there’s 35k plus feet of depth under the oceans. Hard to fathom (get it?) that as I zip along on a flight at that altitude, the same distance is under water below me if I were on the ground. Truly remarkable on all aspects.

This seems like it'd be really fun to do.

I must be missing something. 11 to 12 hour mission sitting in a converted cement mixer, including 4 hours hanging out on the ocean floor, checking out candy wrappers and plastic bags, sounds rather awful to me.
I bet cell service is lousy down there.