Billionaire Branson Heads for Murky Depths

Billionaire adventurer Richard Branson announced plans to travel to the deepest parts of the world’s oceans in a single-person submarine this week.

Sir Richard will pilot the one-manned Virgin Oceanic sub as he dives the Puerto Rico trench, located just off the coast of Puerto Rico, sometime in the next 24 months.

Fellow adventurer Chris Welch will act as his back up pilot and be the first human in 50 years to plumb the depths of the Marianas Trench, which plunges 36,000 feet below the surface of the South Pacific.

To date, no manned submersible vehicle has traveled more than 21,000 feet. Branson’s new sub, which was unveiled in Newport Beach, California this week can safely dive to 37,000 feet and operate unaided for up to 24 hours, according to the Virgin Oceanic website.

While Branson is hot to help commercialize space and is probably already planning tours to the bottom of the planet, there is a lot of science that this pioneering effort will generate.

He is working with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego to collect water and animal samples associated with the deep dives. Scripps Institution department professor Doug Bartlett is an expert on microbial life in extreme environments and his knowledge will guide Branson’s team to collect samples during their five deep ocean dives.

Landers that will accompany Branson on his dive will be outfitted with science equipment to collect water and bottom sediment as well as film the deepwater submarine as it passes by. A day after the dives the sub will rendezvous with the landers and gather the data for analysis.

The Scripps team will then study all the samples brought back from the depths and look for any novel organisms as well as potentially beneficial enzymes or genes.

Scientists from University of Southern California, the University of Hawaii and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute are also partnering with Virgin Oceanic on this unprecedented expedition of science and adventure.

Branson says that the sub will be pressure tested over the course of the next three months before the mission begins later this year. The sub is specially designed to withstand the 1,000 atmospheres of pressure found at the bottom of the deepest places on Earth, approximately 1,500 times the pressure of an airplane.

5 Dives 5 Oceans
1. Chris Welch dives the Marianas Trench — 7 miles down and the deepest spot on Earth.
2. Sir Richard Branson dives the Puerto Rico Trench — 5 miles down and the deepest spot in the Atlantic Ocean
3. Human pilot to the Molloy Deep — 3.5 miles down and the deepest spot in the Arctic Ocean
4. Human pilot to the Diamantina Deep– 5 miles down and the deepest spot in the Indian Ocean
5. Human pilot to the South Sandwich Trench — 4 miles down and the deepest spot in the Southern Ocean

“We will unlock the wonders of the oceans still unknown to humankind or science.” — Sir Richard Branson