Nationalgeographic.co.id– Story exploration visiting the highest mountain on earth maybe we are used to hearing about and have been around for many years. But the story exploration to the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans, it seems that only recently have we heard about it in the past year.
The explorer who made the extreme journey was named Richard Garriott. The president of The Explorers Club managed to complete the dive into Challenger Deep, the lowest point on Earth, on March 1, 2021 with his partner Michael Dubno.
Challenger Deep is inside Mariana Trench, the deepest trough on earth. This trench which has a depth of up to 10,911 meters is located on the seabed east of the Mariana Islands and west of the Pacific Ocean, close to Japan and the island of Guam.
Garriott takes a dive to the deepest point of the earth It uses the Limiting Factor, a dive vehicle developed and funded by underwater explorer Victor Vescovo. Using the same submarine, Vescovo and former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan also dived into Challenger Deep in August 2020.
“I’m the first to go from polar ke polar, outer space, and Challenger Deep. And I was the second –or first man– to ever go to outer space then to Challenger Deep, “said Garriott in his interview with collectSPACE.
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Dok. Richard Garriott
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Richard Garriott upon entering the Limiting Factor submarine.
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Richard Garriott has always been known as an explorer, as well as being a video game entrepreneur and developer under the banner of the Portalarium company, which among other things gave birth to the game Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues. He is also the son of a NASA astronaut named Owen Garriott.
Before reaching the deepest point of the earth, Richard Garriott had visited the North Pole and South Pole. He also visited space on the Soyuz TMA-13 mission in 2008 as a private astronaut, not recruited by any other country’s space agency.
In his interview with collectSPACE, Garriott said he was amazed by the ability of the Limiting Factor dive vehicle. “What’s interesting about (diving with) Limiting Factor is that the depth will be more than double what I’ve experienced before and, it turns out, it’s much more difficult,” he said.
In addition, Garriott said, previously no equipment could operate at half the depth that the Limiting Factor could reach. “So finding or building equipment (for use on the Limiting Factor) that can operate at twice that depth is more difficult. They have to overcome some incredible engineering problems, starting with keeping passengers alive.”
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Garriott also said that the space inside the Limiting Factor submarine is quite narrow. “The 9 centimeter thick titanium hull is the smallest vehicle I have ever been on, although it feels more spacious than the Soyuz. [pesawat luar angkasa Rusia] because there are less people and materials in it. So you actually feel very comfortable, but the interior diameter only starts at about 1.46 meters and shrinks to about 1.4 meters as the pressure outside increases. “
He added, “The temperature has also changed from being quite warm on the surface here in the tropics [dekat Guam] becomes almost frozen as you descend into the depths. It got colder and colder. “
Dok. Richard Garriott
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Conditions inside the Limiting Factor submarine from Richard Garriott’s point of view.
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As it reaches the deeper part of the Mariana Trench, the light from above the sea surface immediately disappears. “Most of the other submarines in the world operate within a few hundred meters of the surface where generally there is little light still available. This one descended so fast and so far that it became completely pitch black outside the viewport just moments after. You took off and so you fell through dense darkness for most of the four hour descent. “
As planned for this dive Garriott attempted to descend headfirst into the deepest part of the eastern trench, which is the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. It did “to check that we had reached the deepest point and left the geocache, which is what we did.”
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“We’re leaving a 6-inch square titanium plate [15 cm] connected to the 1.8 m high Kevlar line with a syntactic foam float. On all sides of the float and on all sides of the titanium there is a numerical identifier for the geocache and the secret word. “The existence of this secret word is meant so that one day the person who can claim to have found it is someone who has actually seen and knows the secret word. So, this marker is useful. to make sure that the person has actually visited the deepest point of the earth.
“So we succeeded in spreading it [geocache] at the center of the deepest point on Earth and then we glided for about an hour across the ocean floor. The seabed down there, right where I landed, is what I describe as a ‘ravine plain.’ It’s a kind of desert. The ground is flat and has a very muddy and murky bottom where seven miles of life are left [11 kilometer] on top of that column of water –whether it’s the remains of scales or dirt or dust or the carcass of a rotting fish on it. “
Dok. Richard Garriott
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Seafloor conditions at the deepest point of the earth from the point of view inside the submarine Limiting Factor.
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In addition to finding mud and rocks at the deepest point of the earth, Garriott also said that he encountered many animals on the seabed there. There are even man-made objects that he encountered there.
“There was a fair amount of life down there. We saw almost a few feet or at least an animal with a dozen legs, one of which was a nearly translucent crustacean several inches long,” Garriott said.
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Dok Richard Garriott
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The condition of the seabed at the deepest point of the earth.
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“Then, as we crossed this ravine, we actually encountered the first part of our people, which is the 11 kilometer long cable that had previously been attached to a remotely operated vehicle. It should be noted that last summer when Victor was here , this does not exist. And between that visit and our visit, a Chinese crew has been here with one free-diving submarine and one remotely operated vehicle, the latter to photograph the submarine. ”
“It’s a fairly common practice for those who use these really long fasteners to get rid of it. The problem is that it creates a very difficult hazard for submarines because it’s 7 miles long and stretches and snakes all over the ocean floor and you can’t see the cables. until you actually touch it. We saw the wire first cross our line in one direction and we were surprised to see it, a little worried and worried. Then we saw the same wire, or at least we assumed to be the same wire, crossing our line in the direction other.”
Dok. Richard Garriott
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Seafloor conditions at the deepest point of the earth from the point of view inside the submarine Limiting Factor.
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When asked to compare this exploration of the deepest point of the earth with his adventures to other places he has ever undertaken, Garriott said that the experience of space is hard to beat. However, the similarity of the conditions of the deepest point of the earth to outer space and the polar regions that he has visited is the existence of extreme conditions that make the laws of physics actually appear to change.
“In space, which would obviously have someone hovering 24/7. Not feeling gravity is definitely a fundamental change in physics related to your life. In Antarctica, I can’t tell the difference at all because there is no relative comparison, no way. or telephone poles that can give you an idea of perspective. And so do large, distant rocks and small rocks up close look alike. Antarctica is an interesting place because of the way sight and sound work, and the same is now true for this incredible depth. (Challenger Deep) where you can measure the hull of the wrecked ship around you. “
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“I took a digital tape measure and the sub had shrunk by 6 millimeters [0,2 inci] when it comes down to the depths. The pressure is so great that even items like acoustic telephones, which are made to communicate underwater, barely function at that depth. “
“Water is incompressible but in fact it can compress at least a little. The density of the water is getting bigger and bigger at this enormous depth. Our initial rate of descent was a few meters per second, but when we got to the bottom, the water itself became so dense that we slowed down to less than half a meter per second. ” Grateful Garriott, the water pressure was on the deepest point of the earth this had destroyed the sub by a few millimeters.
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