Director James Cameron will try in the coming weeks to dive to the deepest place on earth, further than any other human has on a solo mission, to return with specimens and images.
Cameron would seek to accomplish his feat aboard a submersible “as futuristic as anything in his movies,” the National Geographic scientific institution, which has partnered with the Canadian filmmaker for the Deepsea Challenge project, said on Thursday.
During testing off Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, Cameron of Avatar and Abyss fame dived deeper than any other human has on a solo mission at a record-breaking 8.2 kilometres, according to National Geographic. His goal is to become the first human to visit the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep, which plummets 11 kilometres down in the Pacific Ocean, for more than 50 years, and bring back data and specimens. National Geographic said the mission would “expand our knowledge and understanding of these largely unknown parts of the planet.”
“When you’re making a movie, everybody’s read the script and they know what’s going to happen next. When you’re on an expedition, nature hasn’t read the script, the ocean hasn’t read the script, and no one knows what’s going to happen next,” said Cameron.