Richard Branson unveils deep-sea submarine plans

Richard Branson unveils deep-sea submarine plans

ca.news.yahoo.com

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, known for such exploits as trying to balloon around the world, said on Tuesday he planned to explore the deepest parts of the world's oceans with a jet-like submarine.

The 18-foot vessel is capable of descents more than 36,000 feet below the surface, said Branson at a news conference in Newport Beach, California.

His project, called Virgin Oceanic, will undertake five dives over two years. The first is set for later this year, when the team plans to explore the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench at a depth of 36,000 feet.

(visit the link for the full news article)

You can go here to see a picture of the sub:
news.travel.aol.com...

I have been watching Branson because of Virgin Galactic, I'm a big fan of Burt Rutan who I think is the best or one of the best at what he does in aerospace. I hope this all works out for Virgin Oceanic we really need to research the bottoms of our oceans more and a deep dive sounds like fun. They plan to dive first in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench witch is right off Japan so I hope they take a geiger counter with them.

ca.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69


Branson is all about money..
More toys for the rich to play with..

Branson said Virgin Oceanic could one day take customers on deep sea dives, just as his Virgin Galactic project may one day take wealthy passengers on suborbital spaceflights.

edit: s&f cause he may find something interesting..

I am reminded of the recent confiscations of advanced private submarines being used by Central and South American drug cartels for illegal trade. I wonder where they've been getting those subs...

*shrug* Just a theory.

reply to post by Magnus47


The large majority of the drug subs that have been recovered have been built on a shoestring from scrap and fibre glass, and furthermore do not have prodigious descent capabilities. Only the rare few are proof against bullets, and many wouldnt be able to dive more than a few scant feet below the surface without pressure becoming too great for thier pathetic hulls to withstand.
This project however has the support of a man who does not mess about with his own saftey, even when doing ridiculously dangerous things like ballooning round the planet, or some other fanciful dance with disaster. If Mr Branson is considering bunging himself into a sub and going deeper than any one has gone before, then I can assure you , he has ensured that every saftey precaution, both reasonable and utterly impractical, has been not only thought about, but taken. Its not as if hes short of the funds to make it happen after all.

This project will finaly see a path forged to the last frontier on Earth. We know more about the space immediately surrounding our planet, than we do about the deepest recesses of the oceans, and although this may well be seen as a jaunt by an increasingly swarthy and aged play boy, I for one recognise that again, Mr Branson is pushing at the boundaries of human capability. Assuming the sucess of this series of trips, the project will open up the seas deepest mysteries, and the answers to the questions of generations. Since the lowest parts of the sea are the places where one would assume the oldest of creatures would reside, this project will offer more than a glimpse of the origins of life on Earth.

Originally posted by Magnus47
I am reminded of the recent confiscations of advanced private submarines being used by Central and South American drug cartels for illegal trade. I wonder where they've been getting those subs...

*shrug* Just a theory.

ha...ha......hahahahahaha

Really?

Finally some real exploration, not the fake NASA type.
We may actually get some real answers to mans past.

I guess they are going to look for those smashed up transformers at the bottom of the trench...

I bet they will see some USOs in there travels as well .

reply to post by backinblack


That rich guy is privatizing space travel.. Sure he's rich.... Sure he's greedy... but at least he is doing really cool stuff with his money...

I'd much rather see a bunch of money dumped into something useful.. as obscure as it may be..

Originally posted by TrueBrit
reply to post by Magnus47

 

The large majority of the drug subs that have been recovered have been built on a shoestring from scrap and fibre glass, and furthermore do not have prodigious descent capabilities. Only the rare few are proof against bullets, and many wouldnt be able to dive more than a few scant feet below the surface without pressure becoming too great for thier pathetic hulls to withstand.
This project however has the support of a man who does not mess about with his own saftey, even when doing ridiculously dangerous things like ballooning round the planet, or some other fanciful dance with disaster. If Mr Branson is considering bunging himself into a sub and going deeper than any one has gone before, then I can assure you , he has ensured that every saftey precaution, both reasonable and utterly impractical, has been not only thought about, but taken. Its not as if hes short of the funds to make it happen after all.

This project will finaly see a path forged to the last frontier on Earth. We know more about the space immediately surrounding our planet, than we do about the deepest recesses of the oceans, and although this may well be seen as a jaunt by an increasingly swarthy and aged play boy, I for one recognise that again, Mr Branson is pushing at the boundaries of human capability. Assuming the sucess of this series of trips, the project will open up the seas deepest mysteries, and the answers to the questions of generations. Since the lowest parts of the sea are the places where one would assume the oldest of creatures would reside, this project will offer more than a glimpse of the origins of life on Earth.

He's not the first. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench on January 23, 1960 in a bathyscape called "Trieste."

reply to post by MiTS1965


The key difference between the historic dive you mention, and this new venture, is that unlike the previous trip to the depths, this one will be free roaming, and self powered, rather than being a bathysphere, an unpowered submersible on a cable, feeding oxygen and so on to the crew from the surface.
This means that as an exploration tool , it will be more versatile and more fluid (te he) of movement, down there in the depths.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Touche. I should have probably looked up some info on those narco subs before I started speculating.

Scientifically speaking he is indeed not the first, but it's been decades since anyone has dived that deep, which is a shame, really. It's only been robotic underwater drones since then. Though the same could be said for humans on the moon.

The privatization of space travel and, in this case, deep ocean research is something that has to happen. I just get worried about the thought of some of the world's most advanced technologies being available to the highest bidder.

reply to post by Magnus47


In a sense I think I understand your worry about deep sea, and space travel being available to the highest bidder. There ARE some fantasiticaly bad people who just so happen to be loaded, and were they to purchase or fund such exploits, Im sure nefarious secondary motives could be assumed for most , if not all thier ventures.
However, making this tech available to the highest bidder is at least a start. Lets face it, these technologies have previously been restricted to government agencies.
I would rather see the high end kit wind up in the hands of civillians than remain solely in the hands of government agencies, not all of whom can be trusted to be fair to the peoples right to know the details of any discoveries they may have made, in any given field.

Further more, Bransons efforts represent a raising of the bar. In both the oceanic and extra atmospheric ventures he has proposed and enacted over the last little while, his actions will force governments to a higher standard of technological capability in thier own research and development of new craft for both environments. After all, if a random British fellow with an untidy thatch of stubble, and dyslexia can organise a civillian space flight, and an extremely deep sea dive which pushes at the boundaries of under sea capability, then frankly the governments of the world will have to raise thier game, or begin to look rather foolish.
The Wright brothers invented flight, but it took Charles Lindberg in a custom built contraption to show the world the possibilities that flight offered. Many kinds of automobile were created before Henry Ford showed the world the mass produced , readily available Model T. Now, Branson is branching out into two established feilds, and bringing them to the public in a way that could not have been foreseen fifteen years ago.
I for one am impressed!