20 ms·
Don Walsh: The man who made the deepest ever dive
- m463 3y agoI remember scuba divers taking a styrofoam coffee cup down, and coming back with what looks like a tiny white shot glass. I wonder how (if?) the human mind can imagine the pressure at the bottom of the trench.
- mytailorisrich 3y agoWhat's terrifying on the bathyscaphe Trieste (pictured in the article) is that the 'living quarters' are only the small sphere attached underneath. Still it is larger than the one on Deepsea Challenger, which can only barely fit a single person, and which James Cameron used for his dive.
- iancmceachern 3y agoWhat's also terrifying is that the buoyancy tanks, the big tanks at the top, ate filled with gasoline
- jaggederest 3y agoIt's not as terrifying a couple miles away from atmospheric oxygen. Gasoline is a perfect flotation fluid, since it is just as incompressible as water but only about 75% of the density.
- iancmceachern 3y agoIndeed, but it doesn't stay down there forever. It also comes back up an lives the bulk of its life up here.
- jaggederest 3y agoOn the ship, right next to literal tons of bunker fuel :)
- iancmceachern 3y agoWhich is then transferred to the bathyscape at the surface no? Not at depth?
- underseacables 3y agoRelated, this fantastic article about Victor Vescovo who dived the deepest points of the globe https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/thirty-six-thousand-feet-under-the-sea https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/thirty-six-tho...
- fastball 3y agoYeah, I watched the documentary[1] about this a few months ago, and must say the Limiting Factor is a pretty awesome sub. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5j9oeZCm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb5j9oeZCm0
- gumby 3y agoThis makes me realize that there are people who have made the deepest dives and people who have made the highest jump (parachute) descent but no records have been make of people combining them (highest release from an aircraft, descending to the water and continuing to descend for as far as possible). Who will be the first to set a record? Musk, Bezos: the future is calling you!
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoNot the same, but I should mention that multiple people have traveled overland from the Dead Sea, as lowest point on earth, to Everest as the highest.
- gumby 3y agoNot the same but equally interesting so thanks!
- rgovostes 3y agoThe inverse: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/682764-first-full-ascent-of-mauna-kea https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/682764-fi...
- gumby 3y agoWow!
- trimbo 3y agoYour comment reminds me of Boards of Canada's "Dayvan Cowboy" video, which blends Joe Kittinger's space jump with Laird Hamilton's surfing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zKARkpDW4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2zKARkpDW4
- gumby 3y agoFeels like more of an "extreme x-games event" rather than gratuitous science of dubious value, wouldn't you say? :-)
- andrewl 3y agoThis is a good line: Ocean and space exploration are frequently compared, and Don often joked that he had the “Right Stuff”, just in the wrong direction.
- snvzz 3y agoMy first thought was: Did he survive the dive?