Tycoon adventurer Sir Richard Branson made headlines last year with a plan to take passengers into outer space with a commercial spaceliner, but apparently that wasn’t exhilarating enough.
On Tuesday, Branson announced that he would also be taking passengers under the sea on Virgin Oceanic, the newest addition to the Virgin Group.
Virgin Oceanic consists of a fleet of one-man submarines expected to reach a maximum speed of 3 knots, have life-support capacity for 24 hours, and be capable of delving to depths deeper than any existing submarine.
The submarines aim to set 30 Guinness World Records by diving nearly 7 miles below the surface. Water pressure at that depth is around 1,000 atmospheres, or roughly 1000 times the pressure that Earth’s atmosphere normally applies to a person standing at sea level.
If a human body were placed at that depth, each square three-eights of an inch of the surface of that body would bear a pressure of 5,600 pounds.
The dives will not only be for pleasure trips, but will also offer a chance for scientists to collect samples from the world’s deepest trenches and for Google to help map out the ocean floor.
There are currently five dives in all five oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic & Southern) scheduled over the next two years.
By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.
Related Links: Time, Christian Science Monitor, Virgin Oceanic
Related Links for PeterGreenberg.com:
