A few hebdomad ago , entrepreneur and explorer Richard Garriott broke a alone record . After a dive to the deepest period in the Earth ’s oceans , Challenger Deep , he became the first person ever to have traveled to the deepest part of the sea , fit to orbit around our planet , and traversed both the North and South Poles . IFLScience sat down with Garriot fora be Instagram interviewdiscussing what the record - breaking dive was like .
" We were at sea for 10 days helping to prepare the submersible for the descent , helping to set up all the experiments that went down on the piloting landers as well as the submarine itself , " Garriot told IFLScience . He then go to describe the necessarily cramp conditions of the tiny submarine and how insensate it get in there as they left the tropical sea to drop into the darkness of the deep sea .
Challenger Deep is located in the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean . Using the incredible “ Limiting Factor ” submersible , Garriot plunk down for 10,915 meters ( 35,810 feet ) on March 1 . This is the same exploration vehicle used by NASA Astronaut and OceanographerDr Kathryn D. ( Kathy ) Sullivan . Hers was three book in one . She was the first American woman to ever take the air in quad , the first fair sex to reach Challenger Deep , and the first person to have done both .
Garriot aviate to the International Space Station in October 2008 as a individual citizen where he also tried to get a few more record , including create the first fictitious moving-picture show in space . And it was only recently back at Christmas that it was bring out that he sneaked on board , within a laminated card , the ashes of dear Star Trek actor James Doohan , who spiel Montgomery “ Scotty ” Scott .
Its latest mission , down below the sea , has also get its share of firsts . The pear-shaped head trip between the Earth’s surface , Challenger Deep , and back look at about four hours , but there ’s plenty to do . Garriott filmed another fictional sci - fi movie ( shortly to be premiered online ) , performed some scientific geographic expedition of the bottom of the sea , and even placed a geocache . He ’s also conducted a fun outreach bodily function , read poetry submitted by ( mostly ) students which was sort of inhale by the challenge of diving to the bottom of the sea
nominate by a member of theNational Association for Teaching English , students were tasked with drop a line a cinquain . This is a five - descent verse form made of only 22 syllables and a fixed social organisation . The first line has two syllable , then four , then six , then eight , and then it cease with two .
In both deep - ocean and space exploration , it is key to know what is need , also cautiously making sure everything has a solid structure . There are certainly parallel with the cinquains . In the interview , Garriott please us with one of the cinquains he made up in his trip .
Garriott also gave us a tease of what ’s next for him , having now been elected chair of the Explorer Club . Garriot ’s next adventures are about two famous boats . One will be take the genetics of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers in the Pitcairns Islands . The second one is finding the remain of Ernest Shackleton ’s Endurance , lost in the Antarctic sparkler in 1915 .
