Not content with flying tourists to the edge of outer space, Sir Richard Branson is also taking them to inner space – under the ocean surface in a deep diving exploration submarine.
Virgin Oceanic intends to dive to five famous deep ocean trenches: the Mariana Trench, the Puerto Rico Trench, the Diamantina Trench, the South Sandwich Trench and the Arctic Ocean Molloy Deep. Richard Branson and American explorer Chris Welsh will take the titanium and carbon fiber submarine on its first dive, capturing science data as they go.
The Virgin Oceanic submarines are designed to dive down 7 miles (11.3km) at a rate of 350ft/min (106.7m/min) at a 45-degree angle, taking 5 hours to visit and return from the Mariana Trench. The submarine weighs 8,000 pounds (3,628kgs) of carbon fiber and titanium, every pound of which is needed to resist the enormous pressure, equal to 1,000 atmospheres – and the quartz viewing dome gets stressed by 13 million pounds of pressure, equivalent to the weight of three space shuttles.
The submarine can stay submerged for 24 hours, can ‘fly’ for 10kms (6.2 miles) along the bottom of the trench, cruising at 3 knots (5.56kph, 3.45mph) and has room for one pilot.
Visit: http://www.virginoceanic.com/
Via TreeHugger
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