Virgin's Branson now to take on the DEEP SEA!!

Vigin Oceanic Sub

Well I guess SPACE is not BIG enough for Sir Richard Branson, announced on Tuesday of his undersea exploration venture, Virgin Oceanic.

Virgin Oceanic Catamaran

Sir Richard and explorer Chris Welsh are set to bold go where no man has gone before.  Their announcement for plans to pilot the submarine to the deepest points in each of the world's five oceans - the first time such a feat has been attempted.

The sub looks like something more akin to a jet fighter aircraft than a traditional submarine.  With a dome bubble-like cockpit of quartz made of quartz that can withstand 13 million pounds of pressure across its surface allow it's pilot views that no other explorer to this point has been able to see.  This should be a REAL thrill ride.

The 8,000 pound craft is constructed from carbon fiber and titanium and rated to withstand pressures down to 37,000 feet below the surface.  With a TOP speed of 3 knots and a diver rate of 350 feet per minute it's pilot would be nearly flying under water.  It's life support system supporting it's occupant for up to 24 hours.

The support vessel a 125' Record-Breaking Ultra-Catamaran is the home and mothership of the Virgin Oceanic Sub.  It's racing frame has been equipped with a crane, generators and loads of electronics to support the dives.


The sub will be equipped with sensors and sampling systems that can filter microbes and viruses from the water for research purposes.  Armed not with weapons but unmanned probes this craft will be able to reach some of the DEEPEST locations in the world and bring back data that we don't have on these areas.

At this point the craft has only been deployed in San Francisco Bay but, Branson and his team hope that over the course of 2011 and 2012 it's sub will dive to not only one but five of the deepest locations on Planet Earths waters.  Their hopes of not only just REACHING these deepest locations but being able to "FLY" nearly 6 miles/10 kilometers along each of these trenches.

Virgin Oceanic's first dive will take place later this year, to the Mariana Trench, a 36,201 foot canyon in the Pacific.  Only 1 human being has ever been there on Jan 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard, inside the bathyscaphe Trieste, a closet-sized metal sphere, joined to a giant gasoline-filled buoyancy tank.  Since that time only two remotely piloted robots have made the journey.


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Sources: Virgin Oceanic, Virgin.com, Wired.com