The Mariana Trench Expedition was a historic feat that underscores the dangerous amateurishness of the imploded Titan submarine
On March 26, 2012, James Cameron inscribed his name in the gallery of great ocean explorers. The Canadian director became the first man to travel alone to the base of the Mariana Trench, one of the deepest points of water on Earth.
It reached 10.8 kilometres, well below the level of the wreck of the Titanic (about 3,800 meters below the surface), sunk in 2012.
The ship that succumbs after colliding with an iceberg on its maiden voyage served as the director’s inspiration to make the 1998 film of the same name, which grossed $2.2 billion at the box office, to be re-released in theaters in 2023.
Cameron worked with a multi-disciplinary team for eight years to build the 7m-long DeepSea Challenger submersible at an engineering firm in Sydney, Australia.
The project faced several failures in subsequent tests. In addition to the safety issue, there was a need for filming equipment that could withstand the extreme conditions in the depths of the Pacific.
Enthusiastic about new technologies, the director developed 3D cameras specifically for the challenge, since the commercial models available at the time could not withstand the underwater pressure.
On board, it took Cameron 2.5 hours to reach a depth of almost 11,000 meters, where he remained just over 3 hours, according to the National Geographic Society, the main sponsor of the expedition.
The director made images and photos from different angles, which were later used in a documentary. He operated various instruments for collecting water, rocks, sediments, microorganisms and small animals for scientific analysis in laboratories.
Only in a compartment 1 meter in diameter, the Oscar winner lived his version of the classic film “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”, from 1961, which gave birth to the famous series responsible for forming a generation of lovers of beauty and mysteries of the oceans.
For ‘The New York Times’, James Cameron defined the adventure in the Mariana Trenches in a curious way. “I felt like a kid in a car going to Disneyland.”
The innumerable difficulties to ensure the absolute safety of the DeepSea Challenger project demonstrate the fatal amateurism that surrounds the Titan submarine, which imploded with five men on board near the hulk of the Titanic.
In an interview with Reuters, Cameron said he expected the worst when he learned of the ship’s disappearance. He found the precarious technology used by OceanGate strange. “I wish I’d talked sooner,” he complained.
Source: Terra
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