IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - 37

Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea
Virgin Oceanic hOpes tO launch a new era Of
manned deep-sea explOratiOn By eliza strickland

A

s the battered little boat slides
down a 3-meter ocean swell into
the next trough, Chris Welsh grits
his teeth and peers out into the
storm. Sheets of rain pummel the
dark windows of the bridge, and
a Micronesian sailor wrestles with
the wheel. It's past midnight on a
July night and we're bobbing over the almost 11 kilometers
of water that fill the deepest abyss on Earth, the Mariana
Trench. Welsh is leading a small party of engineers,
scientists, and adventurers under the banner of Virgin
Oceanic; they've chugged out here aboard a 20-year-old
ferryboat to test some unmanned deep-diving probes.
It's the first step in what they hope will be a glorious hightech adventure, in which a man-Welsh, specifically-
will visit the bottom of the trench before the end of this year.
But right now, most of us would be happy just to make
it back to Guam, 130 km (81 miles) to the north. Another
wave breaks over the boat and crashes down on the
cabin house, dousing the upper deck. I recall a plaque
mounted on a table in the main cabin that admonishes,
"No passengers more than 20 miles from shore." This
20-meter-long vessel is what oceanographers call a
"ship of opportunity," which means it was pressed into
service for the mission basically because it was available.
Welsh turns to the captain, who lives in the Mariana Islands,
and asks, "In your experience, what usually happens in
a storm like this? Does it get better? Does it get worse?"



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum March, 2012

IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - 1
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - 2
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IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - 67
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - 68
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum March, 2012 - Cover4
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