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A new generation of 1)daredevils is seeking to plunge through nearly seven miles of seawater to the bottom of a rocky 2)chasm in the western Pacific that is 3)veiled in perpetual darkness. It is the ocean’s deepest spot. The 4)forbidding place, known as the Challenger Deep, is so far removed from the warming rays of the sun that its temperature hovers near freezing.
“When I was a kid, I loved not only amazing ocean exploration but space, too,” James Cameron, the director of Avatar, Titanic and The Abyss, said in an interview.
The would-be explorers can afford to live their dreams because of their extraordinarily deep pockets. Significantly, their ambitions far exceed those of the world’s 5)seafaring nations, which have no plans to send people so deep.
The billionaires and millionaires include Mr. Cameron, the airline 6)mogul Richard Branson and the Internet guru Eric E. Schmidt. Each is building, planning to build or financing the construction of mini-submarines meant to transport them, their friends and scientists into the depths.
The vehicles, meant to hold one to three people, are estimated to cost anywhere from $7 million to $40 million. The first dive is scheduled for later this year. Since 7)secrecy and technical uncertainty surround many of the ventures, 8)oceanographers say the current schedules may well change.
The rush is happening now in part because of advances in materials, batteries and electronics, which are lowering the cost and raising the capabilities of 9)submersibles. Still, the challenges are 10)formidable.
Hardest to build are the crew 11)compartments, whose walls must be very thick, strong and precisely manufactured to withstand tons of crushing pressure. Designers are using not only traditional steel but such unexpected materials as spheres of pressure-resistant glass.
Humans have laid eyes on the Challenger Deep just once, half a century ago, in a United States Navy vessel. 12)Forays to lesser depths have multiplied over the years. Since the discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic in 1985, hundreds of explorers, tourists and moviemakers (including Mr. Cameron) have visited the world’s most famous shipwreck. It lies more than two miles down.
The Challenger Deep and similar 13)recesses are part of a vast system of seabed 14)trenches that 15)crisscross the globe. The deepest are found in the western Pacific.
In early April, Mr. Branson held a news conference in Newport Beach, California, to unveil his submersible. “The last great challenge for humans,” declared Mr. Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic, “is to explore the depths of our planet’s oceans.”
A few weeks later, in late April, another team went public. It unveiled plans, rather than a nearly complete vehicle. The company, Triton Submarines, based in Vero Beach, Florida, makes tiny submersibles with 16)acrylic personnel spheres that carry two people down a half-mile or more. The clear spheres provide much better viewing than the tiny 17)portholes of traditional submersibles.
The company announced that it was ready to build a submersible to carry three people into the Challenger Deep. A company brochure says investors can expect to charge $250,000 a seat for tours of the Challenger Deep.
The company said the craft would drop fast, covering the seven miles in about two hours. That would leave hours of bottom time for exploration before the return trip to the surface. “It’s not a 18)publicity stunt,” he said of the planning effort. “We’re commercial vehicle builders. We want a product that can be used repeatedly without any difficulty—one that is very elegant, very safe and very competitive.”
Mike McDowell, a leading organizer of adventure tours, including dives to the Titanic, said he was talking to Triton and added that he expected the market for dives into the Challenger Deep to be relatively limited. “It’s more an 19)iconic experience than ‘Gee, everything was so beautiful,’ ” he said in an interview. “And you eliminate a lot of people on the fear factor.”
Mr. Cameron, the maker of Hollywood blockbusters, has 20)kept a low profile and based his effort in Australia. Some five years ago, he formed a team that has been quietly building a submersible along traditional lines, only smaller. In an interview, he said its steel personnel sphere was just four feet wide and would accommodate just one person.
The sphere underwent a successful pressure test in September 2009, Mr. Cameron said. He said his team had overcome major problems with foam meant to 21)buoy the heavy sphere: Early foam 22)crumbled under pressure tests, threatening to rob the submersible of 23)buoyancy and 24)maroon it on the bottom.
The team is building cameras for three-dimensional filming, Mr. Cameron said. Despite reports that the vehicle might be involved in an oceanic 25)sequel to Avatar, he insisted that the deep craft had “nothing to do with my feature life” —though a documentary or two might be forthcoming.
Mr. Cameron said test dives were scheduled for early next year. In the summer of 2012, he added, he and his team will dive in the western Pacific 12 to 15 times. The goal is to 26)plumb not only the Challenger Deep but the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches, which lie north of New Zealand.
The filmmaker added that he was talking to oceanic institutes about developing long-term relationships for use of the submersible. “We’ve gotten a pretty 27)resounding response from the science community,” he said, “because they have such limited funding and access to these deep environments.”
Perhaps the least visible of the 28)entrepreneurs is Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google—and the founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Schmidt Research Vessel Foundation. The institute’s two 29)oceangoing ships are quite large, 253 and 272 feet long.
Mr. Schmidt has also financed the development of an advanced submersible designed by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, a company on Alameda Island in San Francisco Bay. Its founder, Sylvia A. Earle, is an oceanographer and a former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The craft, Deepsearch, is large and sleek by submersible standards. It looks like a fish or a 30)torpedo. Holding up to three people, it would plunge seven miles in little more than an hour. Its personnel sphere, like that of the Triton model, is to be made of glass for better viewing.
“The goal,” says a company Web site, “is not a stunt dive” to the Challenger Deep but “a world asset capable of providing scientists with unlimited access to the deep ocean.”
If anyone thinks of the new explorers as grown-up children playing with expensive toys, ocean veterans reply that there is ample scientific justification for creating new technologies that can regularly plumb the full depth of the ocean, which covers more than 70 percent of the planet yet remains poorly explored.
“The result will be good,” said Don Walsh, a retired Navy officer who survived the descent to the Challenger Deep in 1960 and is advising some of the new ventures. “It will bring people around to remembering how little we know about the oceans.”
新一代的敢死队正力图探潜将近7英里深的海水，到达西太平洋一个被无尽黑暗笼罩着的岩石裂口的底端。那是西太平洋的最深处。这个让人望而却步的地方被称之为“挑战者深渊”，远离温暖阳光的照射，温度在冰点徘徊。
“小时候，我不但喜欢令人惊叹的海洋探索，也很喜欢太空探索，” 电影《阿凡达》、《泰坦尼克号》及《深渊》的导演詹姆斯•卡梅隆在一次访问中这样说道。
这些未来探险家因具备雄厚的财力而得以实现他们的梦想。值得深思的是，他们的雄心壮志远远超出世界上一些航海国家的预料，这些国家根本没想过要将人们送往如此之深的海底世界。
这些亿万富翁、百万富翁包括卡梅隆先生、航空公司巨头理查德•布兰森及互联网权威埃里克•E•施密特。他们每个人都在建造、计划建造、或是提供资金建造能够将他们、其朋友及科学家们送往海底深处的迷你潜水艇。
制造这些计划承载一至三个人的深潜器，预计耗资700万美元至4000万美元。第一次试水安排在今年下半年。鉴于保密性及这些冒险计划仍存在技术未知数，海洋学家称目前的时间安排很有可能会改变。
在某种程度上，材料、电池及电子技术的改进降低了制造成本，提高了潜水艇的性能，从而助长了深海探潜这股热潮。尽管如此，挑战仍然是巨大的。
最难打造的是船员隔间，墙壁必须非常厚而坚固，并且能够抵抗数以万吨的压力。设计师不仅仅使用传统的钢铁，也使用了诸如抗压玻璃球体等意想不到的材料。
半个世纪前，在美国的一艘海军军舰上，人类曾将目光投向“挑战者深渊”，但仅此一次而已。在过去这些年里，向较浅一点的领域探进的尝试倍增。自从1985年在北大西洋海底发现泰坦尼克号残骸之后，数以百计的探险家、游客和制片人（包括卡梅隆先生）参观了这艘世界上最著名的遇难船，它与海平面的距离超过两英里。
“挑战者深渊”及其他类似的海底深渊是地球上纵横交错的广阔海沟带的一部分。最深的一处在西太平洋。
四月初，布兰森先生在美国加州的纽波特比奇召开了一次新闻发布会，向公众展示他的潜水艇。“人类的最后一个伟大挑战，”英国维珍大西洋航空公司和维珍银河航空公司的创始人布兰森先生宣称，“是探索我们地球海洋中的深渊。”
几周后的四月底，另一组人马向公众亮相了。这个小组展示了自己的探潜计划，而非将近完成的深潜器。这家海神潜水艇公司位于佛罗里达州的维洛海滩，制造可以运载两个人到半英里以下海底的丙烯酸球状小型潜水艇。它通透的球体能提供比传统潜水艇的小型舷窗更好的景观。
该公司宣称已经准备好打造一艘能够运载三个人到达“挑战者深渊”的潜水艇。公司宣传册上称，预计项目投资者可向参加“挑战者深渊”之旅的游客收取每人25万美元的费用。
该公司还说这艘潜水艇能够很快潜至海底，下潜7英里只需约2小时。这意味着船员在返回海面之前能有更多时间留在海底。“这不是在作秀，”该公司对该计划评价道，“我们是潜水艇的商业制造商。我们希望产品能够无障碍地重复使用——我们想生产一种非常优雅、安全且具有竞争力的产品。”
麦克•麦克道尔是潜游泰坦尼克号等探险之旅的主要策划人之一，他称自己正与海神公司洽谈合作，并补充道，他希望能对潜水至“挑战者深渊”的市场加以限制。“这是一种里程碑式的人生体验，而不是‘哇，所有东西都美极了’这样的观光体验，”他在一个访问中如是说，“而且凭恐惧因素你就可以淘汰许多人了。”
好莱坞大片的制片商卡梅隆先生，最近一直保持低调，将精力集中在澳大利亚。大概五年前，他组建了一个团队秘密制造体积稍小的传统型潜水艇。在一次访问中，他说这艘潜水艇的钢铁载人球体仅四英尺宽，只能容纳一个人。
卡梅隆先生说，这球体在2009年9月成功通过了压力测试，并称其团队克服了主要问题，泡沫成功地承载起这个沉重的球体：早期的泡沫在压力测试下会破裂，造成影响潜水艇的浮力并使潜艇沉降至海底的威胁。
该团队正在为3D立体电影的拍摄安装摄像机，卡梅隆先生说。尽管有报道称这艘潜水艇将用于《阿凡达》海洋续集的拍摄，但他坚称该深水潜水艇“与其拍摄生涯毫无关系”——尽管可能会出一两部纪录片。
卡梅隆先生称潜水测试将安排在明年初进行。在2012年夏天，他补充道，他及其团队将探潜西太平洋12至15次。探索的目标不仅仅是“挑战者深渊”，还包括位于新西兰北部的汤加和克马德克海沟。
这位制片商补充道，他正与海洋研究所洽谈开发使用潜水艇的长期合作关系。“我们从科学团体那里得到很好的回应，”他说，“因为他们在探索深海方面的基金和渠道都有限。”
也许最少露面的企业家是谷歌的执行主席——也是施密特海洋研究所及施密特研究船只基金会的创建人——施密特先生。该研究所的两艘远洋航行船只都相当大，分别长达253英尺及272英尺。
施密特先生还为位于旧金山湾阿拉米达岛的深海探索和研究公司提供资金，用于设计开发一艘先进的潜水艇。该公司的创始人西尔维亚•A•厄尔勒是一位海洋学家，曾是国家海洋和大气管理署的首席科学家。
这艘名为“深海探索”的潜水艇（以潜水艇的标准来评价的话），巨大而光滑，看起来像一条鱼或者一个鱼雷。它能够承载三个人，只需一个小时出头的时间便可潜至七英里深。它的载人球体将会像海神的型号那样，用玻璃制造，以便观赏到更好的景致。
一个公司网站上这样写道：“目标不是到达‘挑战者深渊’的‘一个噱头’”，而是“成为能够为科学家提供探索深海的无限条件的世界级资产”。
如果有人认为这些新晋探索家是一群玩弄昂贵玩具的大孩子，那么资深海洋探险家会如此回复：其实有足够的科学理由去支持创造可以定期潜至深海的新科技。海洋覆盖地球表面70%的面积，但却很少被探索开发。
“结果将会不错，”1960年在探索“挑战者深渊”历程中幸存的退休海军军官唐•沃儿什说，他现在为一些新的探险项目做顾问。“这会使人们铭记我们对海洋的了解是多么贫乏。”
“When I was a kid, I loved not only amazing ocean exploration but space, too,” James Cameron, the director of Avatar, Titanic and The Abyss, said in an interview.
The would-be explorers can afford to live their dreams because of their extraordinarily deep pockets. Significantly, their ambitions far exceed those of the world’s 5)seafaring nations, which have no plans to send people so deep.
The billionaires and millionaires include Mr. Cameron, the airline 6)mogul Richard Branson and the Internet guru Eric E. Schmidt. Each is building, planning to build or financing the construction of mini-submarines meant to transport them, their friends and scientists into the depths.
The vehicles, meant to hold one to three people, are estimated to cost anywhere from $7 million to $40 million. The first dive is scheduled for later this year. Since 7)secrecy and technical uncertainty surround many of the ventures, 8)oceanographers say the current schedules may well change.
The rush is happening now in part because of advances in materials, batteries and electronics, which are lowering the cost and raising the capabilities of 9)submersibles. Still, the challenges are 10)formidable.
Hardest to build are the crew 11)compartments, whose walls must be very thick, strong and precisely manufactured to withstand tons of crushing pressure. Designers are using not only traditional steel but such unexpected materials as spheres of pressure-resistant glass.
Humans have laid eyes on the Challenger Deep just once, half a century ago, in a United States Navy vessel. 12)Forays to lesser depths have multiplied over the years. Since the discovery of the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic in 1985, hundreds of explorers, tourists and moviemakers (including Mr. Cameron) have visited the world’s most famous shipwreck. It lies more than two miles down.
The Challenger Deep and similar 13)recesses are part of a vast system of seabed 14)trenches that 15)crisscross the globe. The deepest are found in the western Pacific.
In early April, Mr. Branson held a news conference in Newport Beach, California, to unveil his submersible. “The last great challenge for humans,” declared Mr. Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic, “is to explore the depths of our planet’s oceans.”
A few weeks later, in late April, another team went public. It unveiled plans, rather than a nearly complete vehicle. The company, Triton Submarines, based in Vero Beach, Florida, makes tiny submersibles with 16)acrylic personnel spheres that carry two people down a half-mile or more. The clear spheres provide much better viewing than the tiny 17)portholes of traditional submersibles.
The company announced that it was ready to build a submersible to carry three people into the Challenger Deep. A company brochure says investors can expect to charge $250,000 a seat for tours of the Challenger Deep.
The company said the craft would drop fast, covering the seven miles in about two hours. That would leave hours of bottom time for exploration before the return trip to the surface. “It’s not a 18)publicity stunt,” he said of the planning effort. “We’re commercial vehicle builders. We want a product that can be used repeatedly without any difficulty—one that is very elegant, very safe and very competitive.”
Mike McDowell, a leading organizer of adventure tours, including dives to the Titanic, said he was talking to Triton and added that he expected the market for dives into the Challenger Deep to be relatively limited. “It’s more an 19)iconic experience than ‘Gee, everything was so beautiful,’ ” he said in an interview. “And you eliminate a lot of people on the fear factor.”
Mr. Cameron, the maker of Hollywood blockbusters, has 20)kept a low profile and based his effort in Australia. Some five years ago, he formed a team that has been quietly building a submersible along traditional lines, only smaller. In an interview, he said its steel personnel sphere was just four feet wide and would accommodate just one person.
The sphere underwent a successful pressure test in September 2009, Mr. Cameron said. He said his team had overcome major problems with foam meant to 21)buoy the heavy sphere: Early foam 22)crumbled under pressure tests, threatening to rob the submersible of 23)buoyancy and 24)maroon it on the bottom.
The team is building cameras for three-dimensional filming, Mr. Cameron said. Despite reports that the vehicle might be involved in an oceanic 25)sequel to Avatar, he insisted that the deep craft had “nothing to do with my feature life” —though a documentary or two might be forthcoming.
Mr. Cameron said test dives were scheduled for early next year. In the summer of 2012, he added, he and his team will dive in the western Pacific 12 to 15 times. The goal is to 26)plumb not only the Challenger Deep but the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches, which lie north of New Zealand.
The filmmaker added that he was talking to oceanic institutes about developing long-term relationships for use of the submersible. “We’ve gotten a pretty 27)resounding response from the science community,” he said, “because they have such limited funding and access to these deep environments.”
Perhaps the least visible of the 28)entrepreneurs is Mr. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google—and the founder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Schmidt Research Vessel Foundation. The institute’s two 29)oceangoing ships are quite large, 253 and 272 feet long.
Mr. Schmidt has also financed the development of an advanced submersible designed by Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, a company on Alameda Island in San Francisco Bay. Its founder, Sylvia A. Earle, is an oceanographer and a former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The craft, Deepsearch, is large and sleek by submersible standards. It looks like a fish or a 30)torpedo. Holding up to three people, it would plunge seven miles in little more than an hour. Its personnel sphere, like that of the Triton model, is to be made of glass for better viewing.
“The goal,” says a company Web site, “is not a stunt dive” to the Challenger Deep but “a world asset capable of providing scientists with unlimited access to the deep ocean.”
If anyone thinks of the new explorers as grown-up children playing with expensive toys, ocean veterans reply that there is ample scientific justification for creating new technologies that can regularly plumb the full depth of the ocean, which covers more than 70 percent of the planet yet remains poorly explored.
“The result will be good,” said Don Walsh, a retired Navy officer who survived the descent to the Challenger Deep in 1960 and is advising some of the new ventures. “It will bring people around to remembering how little we know about the oceans.”
新一代的敢死队正力图探潜将近7英里深的海水，到达西太平洋一个被无尽黑暗笼罩着的岩石裂口的底端。那是西太平洋的最深处。这个让人望而却步的地方被称之为“挑战者深渊”，远离温暖阳光的照射，温度在冰点徘徊。
“小时候，我不但喜欢令人惊叹的海洋探索，也很喜欢太空探索，” 电影《阿凡达》、《泰坦尼克号》及《深渊》的导演詹姆斯•卡梅隆在一次访问中这样说道。
这些未来探险家因具备雄厚的财力而得以实现他们的梦想。值得深思的是，他们的雄心壮志远远超出世界上一些航海国家的预料，这些国家根本没想过要将人们送往如此之深的海底世界。
这些亿万富翁、百万富翁包括卡梅隆先生、航空公司巨头理查德•布兰森及互联网权威埃里克•E•施密特。他们每个人都在建造、计划建造、或是提供资金建造能够将他们、其朋友及科学家们送往海底深处的迷你潜水艇。
制造这些计划承载一至三个人的深潜器，预计耗资700万美元至4000万美元。第一次试水安排在今年下半年。鉴于保密性及这些冒险计划仍存在技术未知数，海洋学家称目前的时间安排很有可能会改变。
在某种程度上，材料、电池及电子技术的改进降低了制造成本，提高了潜水艇的性能，从而助长了深海探潜这股热潮。尽管如此，挑战仍然是巨大的。
最难打造的是船员隔间，墙壁必须非常厚而坚固，并且能够抵抗数以万吨的压力。设计师不仅仅使用传统的钢铁，也使用了诸如抗压玻璃球体等意想不到的材料。
半个世纪前，在美国的一艘海军军舰上，人类曾将目光投向“挑战者深渊”，但仅此一次而已。在过去这些年里，向较浅一点的领域探进的尝试倍增。自从1985年在北大西洋海底发现泰坦尼克号残骸之后，数以百计的探险家、游客和制片人（包括卡梅隆先生）参观了这艘世界上最著名的遇难船，它与海平面的距离超过两英里。
“挑战者深渊”及其他类似的海底深渊是地球上纵横交错的广阔海沟带的一部分。最深的一处在西太平洋。
四月初，布兰森先生在美国加州的纽波特比奇召开了一次新闻发布会，向公众展示他的潜水艇。“人类的最后一个伟大挑战，”英国维珍大西洋航空公司和维珍银河航空公司的创始人布兰森先生宣称，“是探索我们地球海洋中的深渊。”
几周后的四月底，另一组人马向公众亮相了。这个小组展示了自己的探潜计划，而非将近完成的深潜器。这家海神潜水艇公司位于佛罗里达州的维洛海滩，制造可以运载两个人到半英里以下海底的丙烯酸球状小型潜水艇。它通透的球体能提供比传统潜水艇的小型舷窗更好的景观。
该公司宣称已经准备好打造一艘能够运载三个人到达“挑战者深渊”的潜水艇。公司宣传册上称，预计项目投资者可向参加“挑战者深渊”之旅的游客收取每人25万美元的费用。
该公司还说这艘潜水艇能够很快潜至海底，下潜7英里只需约2小时。这意味着船员在返回海面之前能有更多时间留在海底。“这不是在作秀，”该公司对该计划评价道，“我们是潜水艇的商业制造商。我们希望产品能够无障碍地重复使用——我们想生产一种非常优雅、安全且具有竞争力的产品。”
麦克•麦克道尔是潜游泰坦尼克号等探险之旅的主要策划人之一，他称自己正与海神公司洽谈合作，并补充道，他希望能对潜水至“挑战者深渊”的市场加以限制。“这是一种里程碑式的人生体验，而不是‘哇，所有东西都美极了’这样的观光体验，”他在一个访问中如是说，“而且凭恐惧因素你就可以淘汰许多人了。”
好莱坞大片的制片商卡梅隆先生，最近一直保持低调，将精力集中在澳大利亚。大概五年前，他组建了一个团队秘密制造体积稍小的传统型潜水艇。在一次访问中，他说这艘潜水艇的钢铁载人球体仅四英尺宽，只能容纳一个人。
卡梅隆先生说，这球体在2009年9月成功通过了压力测试，并称其团队克服了主要问题，泡沫成功地承载起这个沉重的球体：早期的泡沫在压力测试下会破裂，造成影响潜水艇的浮力并使潜艇沉降至海底的威胁。
该团队正在为3D立体电影的拍摄安装摄像机，卡梅隆先生说。尽管有报道称这艘潜水艇将用于《阿凡达》海洋续集的拍摄，但他坚称该深水潜水艇“与其拍摄生涯毫无关系”——尽管可能会出一两部纪录片。
卡梅隆先生称潜水测试将安排在明年初进行。在2012年夏天，他补充道，他及其团队将探潜西太平洋12至15次。探索的目标不仅仅是“挑战者深渊”，还包括位于新西兰北部的汤加和克马德克海沟。
这位制片商补充道，他正与海洋研究所洽谈开发使用潜水艇的长期合作关系。“我们从科学团体那里得到很好的回应，”他说，“因为他们在探索深海方面的基金和渠道都有限。”
也许最少露面的企业家是谷歌的执行主席——也是施密特海洋研究所及施密特研究船只基金会的创建人——施密特先生。该研究所的两艘远洋航行船只都相当大，分别长达253英尺及272英尺。
施密特先生还为位于旧金山湾阿拉米达岛的深海探索和研究公司提供资金，用于设计开发一艘先进的潜水艇。该公司的创始人西尔维亚•A•厄尔勒是一位海洋学家，曾是国家海洋和大气管理署的首席科学家。
这艘名为“深海探索”的潜水艇（以潜水艇的标准来评价的话），巨大而光滑，看起来像一条鱼或者一个鱼雷。它能够承载三个人，只需一个小时出头的时间便可潜至七英里深。它的载人球体将会像海神的型号那样，用玻璃制造，以便观赏到更好的景致。
一个公司网站上这样写道：“目标不是到达‘挑战者深渊’的‘一个噱头’”，而是“成为能够为科学家提供探索深海的无限条件的世界级资产”。
如果有人认为这些新晋探索家是一群玩弄昂贵玩具的大孩子，那么资深海洋探险家会如此回复：其实有足够的科学理由去支持创造可以定期潜至深海的新科技。海洋覆盖地球表面70%的面积，但却很少被探索开发。
“结果将会不错，”1960年在探索“挑战者深渊”历程中幸存的退休海军军官唐•沃儿什说，他现在为一些新的探险项目做顾问。“这会使人们铭记我们对海洋的了解是多么贫乏。”