Every dive teaches us more, and we are continuing to improve the sub and its systems daily, as we move through our sea trials.” It took more than seven years to design and build the vehicle, and it is still a work in progress. Our success during seven prior expeditions building and operating our own deep-ocean vehicles, cameras, and lighting systems gave me confidence that such a vehicle could be built, and not just with the vast resources of government programs, but also with a small entrepreneurial team.
The only way to make my dream a reality was to build a new vehicle unlike any in current existence. There is currently no submersible on Earth capable of diving to the ‘full ocean depth’ of 36,000 feet. So little is known about these deep places that I knew I would see things no human has ever seen. This quest was not driven by the need to set records, but by the same force that drives all science and exploration … curiosity.
For me it went from a boyhood fantasy to a real quest, like climbing Everest, as I learned more about deep-ocean exploration and became an explorer myself in real life. “I’ve always dreamed of diving to the deepest place in the oceans.