Filmmaker James Cameron dives the real Abyss.

Filmmaker James Cameron dives the real Abyss.
National Geographic

James Cameron, the film maker who brought us Avatar and The Abyss is about to embark on a journey to the real abyss: the Mariana Trench. He’s going to go there solo, and has already set the world record for solo diving in tests:

Already the tech-laden sub has taken Cameron a record-breaking 5.1 miles (8.2 kilometers) straight down. That Tuesday dress rehearsal for Mariana made the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER the deepest-diving submersible in operation and the deepest-diving single-pilot sub in history.

Designed to sink strangely—and efficiently—upright, the 26-foot-tall (8-meter-tall) craft was eight years in the making. Among its advances is a specially designed foam that helps allows the new sub to weigh in at 12 metric tons, making it some 12 times lighter than Trieste.

Despite its innovations, the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER‘s spherical steel cockpit just barely accommodates its single occupant—in this case, Cameron, the man behind Avatar, Titanic, The Terminator, and, fittingly, The Abyss.

Cameron hopes to achieve something that was not possible 50 years ago. He hopes to return with real life monsters from the deep and soil samples.

Now he aims to become the first human to visit the Mariana Trench‘s Challenger Deep in more than 50 years—and to return with animals, images, and data that were unthinkable in 1960.

With a folding robotic arm, he’ll be able to collect rocks, animals, and seafloor core samples for later study on the surface.

NG Marianas Trench

At Challenger Deep, the trench plummets 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) down—if Mount Everest were dropped here, its summit would be more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) underwater.

But even before he goes they will be sending ROV’s ahead so even if his attempt is unsuccessful they will still get these:

Before Cameron’s dive, the team also plans to send unmanned “landers” to the trench bottom. Resembling skinny phone booths, the 13-foot-tall (4-meter-tall), camera-equipped submersibles will carry bait to lure sea creatures into plastic cylinders, which can be retrieved by the team when the landers surface.

“The animals on the inside are captured” and even after ascent, “still cold, still under pressure,” Kevin Hardy, senior development engineer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, and a member of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGE team, told National Geographic.

Hardy predicts some of the specimens will be “totally alien” to scientists. “If you can imagine a wild animal, you’ll find it down there.”

Already, “science fiction is mimicking what we see for real in the deep ocean,” he added. “And we haven’t seen it all yet. There’s a ‘continent’ we haven’t explored down there.”

New technology will allow him to stay down for 6 hours and perform more science than the first Navy divers who just went down and back.

By contrast, the Cameron-designed DEEPSEA CHALLENGER sub is expected to allow the explorer to spend about six hours on the seafloor. During that time he plans to collect samples and film the whole affair with multiple 3-D, high-definition cameras and an 8-foot-tall (2.4-meter-tall) array of LED lights.

During the expected six-hour sea-bottom sojourn, Cameron will be able to use the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER‘s 12 propeller-driven thrusters to move up and down and side to side and to hover in place.

But even with this new technology it will be very dangerous. The sub will actually shrink two and a half inches from the crushing pressures of that depth:

The sub will actually shrink by about 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters) during the descent.

I am glad to hear in this time when NASA is in a political quagmire with no plans to go to the moon or Mars that scientist are still pushing the envelope. I can’t wait to see the fascinating images and movies that will come of this. Thank you Nation Geographic.




Here is a link to the ongoing Expedition Journal so you can follow the expedition.

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

reply to post by pianopraze


I hope he doesn't literally bump into Richard Branson,who is doing a similar project.


www.abc.net.au...

Actually it would be great if they could meet up down there safely-may make for an interesting angle for the film.

That is awesome! I have read about his project. I have also read that he is doing this to make an Avatar 2 and have it be realistic to the oceans. The second one will be set under the ocean. I am looking for the link I read about this on. It's been a while but I think it's a great project! I look forward to what we get.

I love James Cameron's movies, Abyss is one of my favorites too
I wasn't much of a fan of the first Avatar but I'd like to see what he comes up with for an underwater one.

reply to post by mblahnikluver


I think I read that the Avatar 2 film will be based on the Alien planet's water moon,which we see a few shots of in the first film.

It will be great to see him use the weird beasties he finds down in the trench in Av2.

Great to see James Cameron motoring on with another top project after NASA ditched his "Mars 3D"film idea.

Here it is

Canadian film director James Cameron is gathering a team of engineers to build a submersible that can visit the Pacific’s Mariana Trench, the ocean’s deepest point, to gather footage for the sequel to his blockbuster 2009 movie Avatar. Only one other team has ever visited the Mariana Trench: Captain Don Walsh, a US Navy submariner, and Jacques Piccard, a Swiss engineer, who descended for five hours in a steel submersible called the Trieste in January 1960. No one has ever tried to repreat the descent, until now. Cameron’s vessel is reportedly being assembled in Australia and tests on the hull are already completed; a trial dive might occur later this year. Cameron’s engineers are studying the Trieste’s descent, in which—less than an hour into it, at a depth of 4,200 feet—a dribble of water appeared on the wall. Another leak was sprung at 18,000 feet, which sealed itself again, and at 32,400 feet (deeper than Mount Everest is high) there was a crack and the vessel’s cabin shook. But they made it.

Avatar sequel

I'd be interested to see what James Cameron does special effects wise with what he films down there. Awesome!

And here is a link from CBS in 2011 about it as well
James Cameron Avatar 2 dive

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Oh I know!

I didn't like Avatar personally but I saw it in 3D and it was really cool. It was a great movie special effects wise. I loved that about it. I think what he comes up with will be amazing and he will draw on things we have here on Earth.

Yea I'd love to see something done by him on Mars!

Wow! This is very fascinating! Who knew Cameron was a scientist, too! I will definitely be following this! Thanks for sharing.

Word is Cameron was heading to the Antarctic on Al gores Icebreaker ?!
As well as Gareth Morgan and another Ship load of wealthy others.

hmm

Just to be clear, the dive to the bottom of Marianas Trench may not happen for a week or more. They are still testing, but this is a huge milestone. So don't worry if you don't hear he's made it over the next couple of days.

Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

Cameron is an experienced deep sea diver with seven deep sea dives under his belt. I think he will make it.

The Deepsea Challenger also has safety features built in.

There are heavy steel plates attached to the craft that can be released and it would shoot up like a cork. If the electromagnetic release fails, Cameron can release them manually. If Cameron is unconscious, the steel plates can be released by remote control from the surface.



Forged in Steel. Cameron will be sitting in this steel sphere which is part of the craft. It looks sturdy to me:



More pics of the Deepsea Challenger: Cameron's Green Machine

reply to post by pianopraze


Seriously, you have to be a real moron if you don't appreciate Cameron. He's one of the greatest directors of all time, I would list him among Scorsese, De Palma, Nolan and many others. Mainly because of his passion he brings to the big screens. He makes popcorn blockbusters, yes I am aware of it, however his bloated special effects baroque operas always have souls, bring important messages (according to his views, what can be agruable) and what is more important are almost always landmarks in moviemaking technologies.

Just look at Zemeckis. He's clearly lost it. Bact to the Future, Forrest Gump, and then he dwelves in CGI movies introducing characters with soulless fish eyes and robotic moves (Polar Express, Mar Needs Moms - huge bo disaster).

Cameron is of a different mold, he adapts new tchnologies for his vision. Avatar divided people - some claimed it is Pocahontas in space, others it's a masterpiece, but still - Abbys, Terminators, True Lies, Titanic, Aliens - all were landmarks in their genres. Movie buffs interested in moviemaking know the background and his unusual, almost psychotic attention to detail, which makes his movies Kubrickian in these terms.

Today, in the time of Transformers and Twilight ruling the box office I shed a tear for the moment I saw T-1000 pushing through the bars in the looney bin Sarah Connor was in. I was 12 with my mom in the cinema and the awe i felt was comparable only to the one I felt in a few moments of Avatar, and the other 'oldies' like Jurassic Park.

Adding his passion to explore the oceans, still so secret and unknown, while we reach far into space, I truly admire the guy.

Michael Bay should take a lesson.

Wish I had his money to realize my childhood dreams.

reply to post by pianopraze


Once again here, Opie forgive my intrusion in semi-off-topic way, however - whoever wants to explore Cameron's fascination with deepest oceans' secrets, can do it thanks to you or simply use google. Fans know.

I just wanted to add one clip to your post to remind us some good stuff...

and...here...we...go

Here's another cool video from National Geographic. It shows a computer simulation of the dive scaled down from 90 minutes to 1 minute.

Too bad not everyone else is rich enough to go exploring the oceans in our own private subs. Guess we'll have to wait till it's common practice and everything of interest has been discovered and claimed by tptb. Just like on the lands...

Originally posted by GeminiTwin
Wow! This is very fascinating! Who knew Cameron was a scientist, too! I will definitely be following this! Thanks for sharing.

Any pretentious movie director with millions of dollars to waste is a would-be scientist. I saw this coming personally.

Originally posted by gigaherc
reply to post by pianopraze

 

Seriously, you have to be a real moron if you don't appreciate Cameron. He's one of the greatest directors of all time, I would list him among Scorsese, De Palma, Nolan and many others. Mainly because of his passion he brings to the big screens. He makes popcorn blockbusters, yes I am aware of it, however his bloated special effects baroque operas always have souls, bring important messages (according to his views, what can be agruable) and what is more important are almost always landmarks in moviemaking technologies.

Just look at Zemeckis. He's clearly lost it. Bact to the Future, Forrest Gump, and then he dwelves in CGI movies introducing characters with soulless fish eyes and robotic moves (Polar Express, Mar Needs Moms - huge bo disaster).

Cameron is of a different mold, he adapts new tchnologies for his vision. Avatar divided people - some claimed it is Pocahontas in space, others it's a masterpiece, but still - Abbys, Terminators, True Lies, Titanic, Aliens - all were landmarks in their genres. Movie buffs interested in moviemaking know the background and his unusual, almost psychotic attention to detail, which makes his movies Kubrickian in these terms.

Today, in the time of Transformers and Twilight ruling the box office I shed a tear for the moment I saw T-1000 pushing through the bars in the looney bin Sarah Connor was in. I was 12 with my mom in the cinema and the awe i felt was comparable only to the one I felt in a few moments of Avatar, and the other 'oldies' like Jurassic Park.

Adding his passion to explore the oceans, still so secret and unknown, while we reach far into space, I truly admire the guy.

Michael Bay should take a lesson.

As a mainstream film director he has been successful. And some of the films you list are very good ones such as Aliens and Terminator, but others are not so. Titanic was an overhyped 4 hour stinker of movie that was most popular with unintelligent teenage girls who watched it over and over again.

The success of Titanic was matched by Cameron's crass, egotistical outbursts (who can remember his cringeworthy 'I'm the king of the world' cry at the Oscars?).

No, perhaps those film buffs that think that film begins and ends in Hollywood consider Cameron the greatest of directors, but those of us that also follow World cinema are less impressed.

Still, so long as National Geographic keeps Cameron's tendency to seek attention in check, we might have a pretty good nature programme on our hands.

Coming soon to a news outlet near you:

Headline: Filmmaker James Cameron dies
Subhead: Deep-sea submarine hull breach claims 'Avatar' director


That dude is crazy.

I think it's awesome that in a time when our governments cease exploration, a private person would fund a trip like this. Who cares if he's "fulfilling a childhood dream" with his money - he's using it for something great, and something the whole world can learn from. Kudos!

nvm