The Mariana trench

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Found on the web..
 

In the 1960s, when they were making history, how did they know the submersible wouldn't get crushed at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, since at the time no one had been that deep down before?

Big ones and testing…

 

Back then, the Mariana Trench was the Mount Everest of the deep – a place where humans theorized life couldn't exist under the crushing weight of the ocean.

The Trieste, the bathyscaphe used on this daring mission, was more of a scientific experiment than a proven piece of technology.

Jacques Piccard, the vessel's designer, was a savy engineer, but the only way to truly test the Trieste's limits was in the abyss itself.

Understanding the immense pressure was key.

For every 33 feet of depth, the pressure increases by one atmosphere, roughly 15 pounds per square inch.

At the Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the Trench, the pressure exceeded 16,000 pounds per square inch – the equivalent of a sedan resting on your big toe.

To survive, the Trieste needed a remarkably strong pressure sphere.

Piccard designed one from thick steel with a conical design to better distribute stress - much like an egg is surprisingly hard to crush when squeezed from top to bottom.

Yet, theory and steel could only offer so much reassurance.

The Trieste was meticulously tested in progressively deeper dives, each one pushing the limits while engineers scrutinized every weld and rivet.

Like a fighter pilot pushing an untested aircraft to the edge of its performance envelope, the team treated each dive as a potential failure point.

But every descent, every cautious increase in pressure, brought them closer to their goal.

As they ventured deeper, they encountered a world utterly foreign to their own.

Bioluminescent creatures flickered in the darkness, proving life found a way to prosper even under such extremes.

This also offered subtle reassurance - if fragile creatures could exist in the Trench, perhaps the Trieste could as well.

Still, risk followed them like an unseen predator.

In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh climbed into this precarious metal bubble, knowing it was their only shot at becoming the first humans to reach the crushing abyss of the Challenger Deep.

They also knew it could be the last time they ever set their eyes on a world above the abyss.

The descent was a test of nerve against a relentless, unseen pressure.

Imagine squeezing yourself into a cramped steel ball, the porthole the size of a dinner plate offering the only glimpse of a world growing ever darker and colder.

Every tick of the depth gauge was a beat of your heart echoing the immense pressure threatening to implode the vessel.

The porthole, already scratched and hazed from previous dives, could give way at any moment, turning the Trieste into a watery tomb.

Their only relief was knowing that death would be instant.

The steel groaned under the many billions of tons of weight pushing down on it from above.

Four hours and forty-seven minutes later, the instruments rasped a depth of 35,813 feet.

They were at the bottom of the world, surrounded by a darkness so profound it seemed to swallow light itself.

Here, on the ocean floor, the silence was absolute, broken only by the hum of their life-support systems, a fragile counterpoint to the unimaginable pressure trying to crush them.

They spent a harrowing twenty minutes in this alien realm, until a crack spawned on the outer plexiglass window.

History had been made and they would not tempt fate for any longer

[watab kid]

thats a very interesting post , my father spoke of the trench often - he was stationed on saipan , thats on the trench , mostly spoke of the sharks off the garbage cliff and getting washed off a ledge when they were drinking beer on leave 

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

In exploring this rabbit hole I discovered that a third person has explored Challenger Deep. About 12 years ago, James Cameron designed and built a vessel that descended into the Mariana Trench.

 

 

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

A refurbished Trieste, the Trieste II was used to survey the wreckage of the USS Thresher in 1964. An amazing machine. 
 

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Very neat stuff.

I could never do it. Getting out of sight of land is bad enough. Not seeing bottom is worse.

Not seeing  sunlight, or even moonlight, completely unacceptable.