James Cameron To Make Solo Dive 6.8 Miles Into The Ocean Abyss

Director James Cameron has made some of the coolest movies out there for science fiction fans with hits such as Avatar and The Terminator. Cameron is sent to take a real world life risking adventure that will break records if successful. Cameron will squeeze into a submarine called Deepsea Challenger and plunge to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, which is the single deepest point of the Marianas Trench.

Only two people in history have made it to the bottom of Challenger Deep and that was 50 years ago. Cameron will be the first to make the trek solo. In fact, he's already set a record for the deepest solo dive in testing. Naturally, Cameron will record the mission using 3-D cameras and can spend multiple hours on the ocean bottom recording video.

It's hard to imagine exactly how far down Cameron will be in his submarine. At 36,070 feet, the bottom of the Challenger Deep is lower than the common cruise altitude of commercial airliners is high. The peak of Mount Everest is only 29,035 feet high, and infamous Titanic rests at a depth of 12,400 feet. The bottom of Challenger Deep is about 6.8 miles below the surface. That means the pressure on the outside of Cameron's submersible would be in the area of 15,969 PSI or 1086.64 atm.

"You'd be an idiot not to be apprehensive, but I trust the design," Mr. Cameron said as he contemplated his impending dive. "You're going into one of the most unforgiving places on earth."

[via NYTimes]