James Cameron-Deepsea Challenge - Research Paper Example

Even though the respective journey’s the bottom of Marianas Trench were separated by nearly 50 years, the main scientific mission for each were strikingly similar. The first journey to the bottom of the trench too place in 1960. This mission, staffed by Jacques Piccard and Navy Lt. Don Walsh was specifically interested to determine whether or not sea life, or life of any kind, could survive at such crushing depths. As a result of the descent and the length of time that was budgeted on the bottom of the sea floor, Walsh and Piccard only had 20 minutes in which to capture any video or photo proof of life existing at that depth.

Sadly, as a result of all of the silt that they had stirred up on their way down, no convincing photographic or video proof was able to be provided. Yet, before the craft began its long voyage back to the surface, Walsh is said to have spotted a flatfish; something that many scholars then dismissed as impossible due to the great pressure and depths that existed at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Many individuals would further state that what Walsh saw was not a flatfish but instead a type of sea cucumber.

Further, the first voyage took place in an Italian/German made submersible that was named the Trieste. This particular submersible was far ahead of its time and leverage many life support systems and backup systems to ensure that the individuals onboard could maintain life support even in the event of an unexpected occurrence at great depth. Further, as compared to the submersible that Cameron took to the bottom of the trench, the Trieste weighed a staggering 13 metric tons. By means of comparison, Cameron’s craft was much smaller and only allowed for a single individual to pilot it to the bottom of the depth.

However, like the Trieste, the DeepSea Challenger was outfitted with the very latest technology and had a great many systems and subsystems dedicated to sustaining life support even in the event that a primary system failed. Further, the DeepSea Challenger was specifically designed for the trip to the bottom of the Marianas Trench; whereas the Trieste was not tailor made for the task of going to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Nonetheless, both submersibles were able to successfully complete their respective journeys without incident.

Rather than being ballasted by gasoline and detachable water cylinders, the DeepSea Challenger was ballasted by refillable water ballasts alongside a backup dissolving ballast should the water ballasts fail to remove on the trip back to the surface. As a means of comparing the trip itself, Cameron’s craft made the roundtrip voyage in just a little over 7 hours time. By means of comparison, the 1960s crew made the trip in a combined 5 ? hours. The time differential can most effectively be explained by a discussion and consideration of the fact that Cameron spent a significantly longer period of time at the ocean’s floor as compared to those within the Trieste.

As compared to the journey of the Trieste Cameron’s craft experienced some technical difficulty as he sprung a very small leak at the great depths of the Marians Trench; therefore he found it expeditious to forego the gathering of ocean floor samples that he had previously planned on collecting. With that being said, as compared to Walsh and Piccard, Cameron was no able to find any proof of