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James Cameron begins deepest dive
- darxius 15y agoI don't understand, has he left yet? Either way, this is awesome! I can't wait to see what lies at those depths. I would love to know how the engineers who build the new vessel fixed the silt issue.
- softbuilder 15y agoLooks like he's started descent. And I read another article that had more diagrams (maybe Wired?) that showed the propulsion on the craft is at the top, and the pilot space is on the bottom. I guess that solves the silt problem.
- softbuilder 15y agoGuts.
- softbuilder 15y agoFunny, because I originally wrote out a long-winded comment about how I can imagine doing everything he's done except doing the actually descent myself, because of the incredible bravery. Then I realized my entire train of thought could best be summarized in one word. But of course if it doesn't come packaged in longwinded, pseudoacademic gibberish, HN won't like it. Lesson learned.
- yew 15y agoThink more that as I am not inside your head, I do not have the slightest clue as to what your one-word post is intended to communicate.
- omarchowdhury 15y agoI don't know what you mean by pseduoacademic, we all include citations around here!
- dandelany 15y agoPaul Allen's Twitter seems to be a good source of up-to-the-minute news on the dive: https://twitter.com/#!/PaulGAllen https://twitter.com/#!/PaulGAllen He says he's on "Octopus," which I assume is one of the support vessels. Aparently Cameron's sub has just touched down on the seabed, Allen's latest tweet: #deepseachallenge hit bottom at 0752 local time "All systems ok" and a few minutes before that: "Now on the bottom 35755 ft!! Plan is for #Deepseachallenge to spend 4-6 hours on the seabed- take samples....Huge Congrats what a relief!!!" Very exciting!
- marcelvr 15y agoOctopus is Paul's yacht: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_(yacht) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_(yacht)
- Danieru 15y agoOne of his yachts.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- bradhe 15y ago"yacht"
- jordanb 15y agoMan, whenever I see Paul Allen whining about Gates or Ballmer, I think, it sure is curious way to screw someone over: turning them into a billionaire.
- saucetenuto 15y agoDoes Paul Allen actually whine, or is it just that other people whine on his behalf? All the quotes I've read from him have been classy, or at least reserved.
- 6ren 15y ago
- michael_nielsen 15y agoThe official Twitter account: https://twitter.com/#!/DeepChallenge https://twitter.com/#!/DeepChallenge According to tweets from @PaulGAllen and @PeterDiamandis, Deep Challenge should arrive at the bottom around 14:40 PST. Edit (14:50 PST): No word from @PaulGAllen since 14:20 PST, when he noted Cameron was at 32160 feet and "not long to seabead now". I hope the people on the support crew are just really busy because Cameron is touching down on the bottom!
- davidpardo 15y agoHe's on the bottom right now. Latest @jimcameron tweet: "Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing w/ you @DeepChallenge"
- michael_nielsen 15y agoAwesome! According to @PaulGAllen, they hit at 0752 local time, and "all systems ok"!
- yew 15y ago@PaulGAllen: Pressure at bottom is 16,285 Pounds per square inch at that depth. Design pressure was 16,500 ...Yikes/Amazing! Amazing that it is working. The engineering must be interesting. Edit: Apparently the DC weighs a tenth as much as the Trieste (the original bathyscaphe), including all the instruments. Less than a lifetime. . .
- sek 15y agoI have deep respect for this guy. He really cares about these things and makes a living out of it. I share his fascination with the sea and exploration. He really has a message with his movies, but unfortunately not understood by everyone.
- ojbyrne 15y agoUm, I don't think "not understood" is correct. More like not wanting to be hammered over the head with his simplistic, fable-like, morals.
- ojbyrne 15y agoI should have been clearer. I still like his movies, but they're not terribly deep. Entertaining for sure. What he's doing now is obviously pretty damn impressive.
- sek 15y agoWhat i meant was inspiring for exploration, deep sea, the space and so on. The stories in his movie is often very mainstream, but look at the panorama scenes he makes. He really cares about impressive nature and unknown worlds. I really enjoyed Sanctum because of this, these deep caves are really impressive. The story is just something that makes is accessible for the masses. No theater would show a nature documentation and he wouldn't get the funds to make them.
- maeon3 15y agoCreatures down there have been separated from life up here for ever, we need to get the DNA sequenced for some of them, we may find some shocking discoveries of our ancestors 500 million years ago. Are there plans to bring back animal samples?
- brandall10 15y agoIt says "It also has robotic arms, allowing him to collect samples of rocks and soils". So a definitely maybe :)
- gort 15y agoHmm. If anything I'd expect them to have evolved a lot of interesting deep-sea adaptations that should render them rather unlike our 500 MYA ancestors... remember they've had just as long to evolve to their peculiar environment as we have. Still, you've got me thinking about this question. I would think the present-day fish that most resembles our ancestor of that time ought to be something less exotic. Perhaps something like a hagfish.
- pclark 15y agoIt is very difficult to collect animal samples from such great depths - the pressure difference. It is one of the reasons as to why giant squids are so mysterious.
- bradhe 15y agoLift at that depth is few and far between.
- 15y ago
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoOld media: http://www.cnn.com/ http://www.cnn.com/ New media: https://twitter.com/#!/i/discover https://twitter.com/#!/i/discover Guess which one isn't covering this historic event.
- ojbyrne 15y agohttp://nytimes.com http://nytimes.com has a story on their front page, top middle.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoUnderneath the all important Arnold Palmer Invitational results headline article.
- ojbyrne 15y agoYour comment basically suggests that the only difference between "new media" and "old media" is the editorial stance, which stories to emphasize and which to deemphasize. And "new media" essentially caters to the geek/science niche, while old media appeals to the mainstream. So what exactly is new?
- dagw 15y agoFront and center at the top of cnn.com as I type this.
- guynamedloren 15y agoI love this. I love that James Cameron invested his own money to achieve his own dream. I love that curiosity got the best of him - he just couldn't sit still and hold it in any longer. I love that he didn't wait for a government funded deep sea project to roll around. He just went out and did it. This is how things are accomplished. I can't wait to see what he does next.
- jonniekang 15y agoI really hope he finds a UFO or some sea-dwelling people.
- avar 15y agoHe just landed on the bottom at -10.9 km: https://twitter.com/PaulGAllen/status/184037895819112448 https://twitter.com/PaulGAllen/status/184037895819112448
- michael_nielsen 15y agoCameron hit the bottom at 14:52 PST, according to @PaulGAllen, and "all systems ok". Here's Cameron's tweet announcing his arrival: "Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing w/ you @DeepChallenge" https://twitter.com/#!/JimCameron/status/184036733959143425 https://twitter.com/#!/JimCameron/status/184036733959143425
- excuse-me 15y agoAm digging through black lifeless seabed mud and ooze - hope to find script for next movie.
- ojbyrne 15y agoActually the phrase "teeming with life" has been used to describe where he is: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Deep-Ocean-is-Earths-Own-Outer-Space-144031706.html http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Deep-...
- andrewcooke 15y agois it really ok to drop the word "maybe" from the front of that quote?
- ojbyrne 15y agoSince the entire article and the point of the whole enterprise is to document that life, I say yes. It's a reasonable rejoinder to "lifeless." Plus I linked to the article, so it's not like I was being misleading. I was stating my point succinctly.
- cop359 15y agoDoes anyone know how they communicate with the sub? My understanding is that radio waves can't penetrate water very far (if at all) and that it's impractical to drag a long cable down.
- apaprocki 15y agoFrom Paul Allen: "#deepseachallenge for the curious, using underwater audio coms UT2000/3000 at 8K freq to hear/talk to Jim five miles of water...30K ft now"
- Isamu 15y ago"The UT 3000 is the very first underwater communication system combining analogue and digital communication in one unit. In addition to the telephony and telegraphy mode, the UT 3000 offers unique features such as own noise measurement, horizontal distance measurement and transmission of SOS signals. "The new digital mode for the first time allows fast and reliable transmission of digital data in water. The possibilities for digital data transfer are nearly unlimited. In the future, own position data, SMS, maneuver reports or target data can be exchanged between submarines in a more secure way. http://www.naval-technology.com/contractors/sonar/l-3_comm/ http://www.naval-technology.com/contractors/sonar/l-3_comm/ http://www.elac-nautik.de/products-naval_acoustics-underwater_communication/highlite-underwater_communication/0a9f51ec9b480fec01b01ddcb38c9515/ http://www.elac-nautik.de/products-naval_acoustics-underwate... Also: according to the UT 3000 MASQ brochure, it can transmit at up to 1000 bits/sec from 12km to 17km Edit more: the brochure says the communication protocol overhead is typically 20%. Error correction is included - and features "excellent burst noise rejection". I would think underwater burst noise could be quite long. Would this require an interleaved code? Could someone comment on this?
- spullara 15y agoIt is probably 100x cheaper per byte than sending an SMS.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- lwat 15y agoI can't wait to see what he manages to film down there!
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- danberger 15y agoHow awesome is it that he is tweeting from the deepest point on earth?
- jacob1 15y agoIt's neat, but keep in mind that we had live video from the moon in the 60's.
- X-Istence 15y agoWater poses an entirely different issue for radio waves than the emptiness of space.
- mladenkovacevic 15y agoAnd this is one of the few events since then that are capable of exciting as much wonder and curiosity. I wasn't alive during the Apollo program but this probably brings me close to the sheer jaw dropping awe I would've experienced had I enjoyed the opportunity to watch the moon landings on tv.
- Isamu 15y agoThey mention the hull is made of "syntactic foam". It seems this is a composite of (glass,ceramic,etc) microspheres in a resin matrix. They mention in the bbc video that they glue blocks together and machine them somehow - how does one machine such a composite? More on syntactic foam: http://www.crgrp.com/technology/materialsportfolio/syntactics.shtml http://www.crgrp.com/technology/materialsportfolio/syntactic... [edit] yet more: "Syntactic foam flotation products are available in formulations for shallow water foam to those capable of reaching the bottom of the Mariana Trench." http://www.esyntactic.com/ http://www.esyntactic.com/ "The HZ Grade of syntactic has been formulated to survive the deepest depths of the ocean. This class of syntactic will survive crush pressures greater than 20,000 psi making for safe operation in the Hadal Zone. http://www.esyntactic.com/dwsfs.htm http://www.esyntactic.com/dwsfs.htm
- Isamu 15y agoSo they say the pilot sphere is thick steel. How do they run the control wiring to the outside? Or could the control signals sent through transducers (e.g. ultrasonic?)
- bbatsell 15y agoThey use electrical penetrators such as these: http://seaconworldwide.com/products/penetrators/penetrators/ http://seaconworldwide.com/products/penetrators/penetrators/ They are listed as one of the main points of failure on the dive's website: http://deepseachallenge.com/the-expedition/deepsea-challenge-expedition-risks-dangers/ http://deepseachallenge.com/the-expedition/deepsea-challenge...
- ivankirigin 15y agoWhat a hero
- pepsi 15y agoAlmost done with ascent: #deepseachallenge sub now at 700M rising. https://twitter.com/#!/PaulGAllen/status/184095201709662208 https://twitter.com/#!/PaulGAllen/status/184095201709662208
- Medicine 15y agohe is back
- dredmorbius 15y agoDEEPSEA CHALLENGE Expedition Risks & Dangers document describes various possible failure modes of the mission, and answers a few questions below. E.g.: "penetrator failure" addresses electrical connectivity through the survival sphere. I found the hyperthermia/hypothermia risk interesting. The survival sphere is not temperature controlled, and will adjust to ambient. With equipment heating, that's over 100F and 100% relative humidity at the surface in the tropics. At depth, ambient water temperatures are just above 0C (32F). http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/86673244?extension=pdf&from=embed http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/86673244?extension=...