0:00:00.730,0:00:04.208
David Biello: So Victor,[br]what have you been up to?

0:00:05.042,0:00:07.684
Victor Vescovo: That's the bottom[br]of the Atlantic Ocean,

0:00:07.708,0:00:10.684
and I guess I read too much[br]Jules Verne as a young boy,

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and so for the last four years[br]I've led a team to design and build

0:00:14.583,0:00:18.143
what is now the most advanced and deepest[br]diving submersible on the planet,

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and I have the ability[br]to personally pilot it too.

0:00:20.833,0:00:23.101
So this was us in December of last year

0:00:23.125,0:00:25.768
for the first time --[br]the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

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DB: And nobody's seen that before right?

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That's just you.[br]VV: No.

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Well, now everybody else.

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DB: Who does that?

0:00:33.458,0:00:34.726
Like --

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VV: Well, I think everyone has seen[br]the developments in the last 10, 15 years.

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You have a bunch of people that have[br]the means to explore outer space,

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like SpaceX or Blue Origin --

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those guys --

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and we're going the other direction.

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So it's a wonderful era

0:00:48.667,0:00:50.893
of private individuals[br]spending their resources

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to develop technologies[br]that can take us to places

0:00:53.292,0:00:55.101
that have never been explored before,

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and the oceans of the world is --

0:00:57.000,0:01:00.684
it's almost a cliché to say[br]it's 70 percent of our entire planet,

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and of that, 95 percent is unexplored.

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So what we're trying to do[br]with our expedition

0:01:05.500,0:01:07.393
is to build and prove out a submersible

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that can go to any point[br]on the bottom of the planet

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to explore the 60 percent of this planet[br]that is still unexplored.

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DB: You need a pretty cool tool[br]to do that, right?

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VV: Right.

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Now the tool is the submarine[br]the Limiting Factor.

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It's a state-of-the-art vessel

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supported by the support ship,[br]the Pressure Drop.

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It has a two-person titanium sphere,[br]90 millimeters-thick,

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that keeps it at one atmosphere,

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and it has the ability to dive repeatedly

0:01:32.625,0:01:35.143
down to the very deepest[br]point of the ocean.

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DB: So like the SpaceX[br]of ocean exploration?

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VV: Yeah, it's kind of the SpaceX[br]of ocean exploration,

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but I pilot my own vehicles.

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(Laughter)

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DB: Are you going to take Elon or...?

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VV: Yeah, I could take someone down there.

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So, Elon, if you're listening,

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I'll give you a ride in mine[br]if you give me a ride in yours.

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(Laughter)

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DB: So tell us what it's like down there.

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I mean, we're talking about a place[br]where the pressure is so intense

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that it's like putting[br]an Eiffel Tower on your toe.

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VV: It's more than that.

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It's about 16,000 psi.

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So the issue is that we have[br]this titanium sphere

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that allows us to go down[br]to these extreme depths

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and come up repeatedly.

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That's never been done before.

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The Challenger Deep has been dived twice,

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once in 1960 and once in 2012[br]by James Cameron,

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and they went down and came back up[br]and those were experimental craft.

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This is the first commercially[br]certified submersible

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that can go up and down[br]thousands of times with two people,

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including a scientist.

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We're very proud that we just took down

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the deepest-diving[br]British citizen in history.

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Just three weeks ago,[br]Dr. Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University

0:02:40.417,0:02:43.018
who was down with us on the Java Trench.

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DB: So not too much freaks you out[br]is what I'm guessing.

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VV: Well, it's a lot[br]different to go diving.

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If you're claustrophobic,[br]you do not want to be in the submarine.

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We go down quite a distance

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and the missions typically last[br]eight to nine hours in a confined space.

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It's very different[br]from the career I had previously

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which was mountain climbing[br]where you're in open spaces,

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the wind is whipping, it's very cold.

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This is the opposite.[br]It's much more technical.

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It's much more about precision[br]in using the instruments

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and troubleshooting[br]anything that can go wrong.

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But if something really[br]goes wrong in the submersible,

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you're not going to know it.

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(Laughter)

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DB: So you're afraid of leaks[br]is what you're saying.

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VV: Leaks are not good,[br]but if it's a leak that's happening,

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it's not that bad[br]because if it was really bad

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you wouldn't know it, again, but --

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you know, fire in the capsule,[br]that wouldn't be good either,

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but it's actually a very safe submersible.

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I like to say I don't trust[br]a lot of things in life,

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but I do trust titanium, I trust math

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and I trust finite element analysis,

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which is how you figure out

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whether or not[br]things like this can survive

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these extraordinary[br]pressures and conditions.

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DB: And that sphere[br]is so perfectly machined, right?

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This is a truly unique craft.

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VV: That was the real trick --

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is actually building a titanium sphere

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that was accurate[br]to within .1 percent of machine.

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Titanium is a hard metal to work

0:03:57.083,0:03:59.143
and a lot of people[br]haven't figured it out,

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but we were very fortunate.

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Our extraordinary team was able[br]to make an almost perfect sphere,

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which when you're subjecting[br]something to pressure,

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that's the strongest[br]geometry you can have.

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When I'm in the submersible[br]and that hatch closes,

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I'm confident that I'm going[br]to go down and come back up.

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DB: And that's the thing[br]you double-check --

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that the hatch is closed?

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VV: There are only two rules[br]in diving a submarine.

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Number one is close the hatch securely.

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Number two is go back to rule number one.

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DB: Alright so, Atlantic Ocean: check.

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Southern Ocean: check.

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VV: No one has ever dived[br]the Southern Ocean before.

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I know why.

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It's really, really hostile.

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The weather is awful.

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The word collision comes to mind.

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But we did that one, yes.

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Glad that's over --[br]DB: Yeah --

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VV: Thank you.

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(Applause)

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DB: It's like you're racing through it.

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And now the Indian Ocean,[br]as Kelly mentioned.

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VV: Yeah, that was three weeks ago.

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We were fortunate enough[br]to actually solve the mystery.

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If someone had asked me three weeks ago,

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"What is the deepest point[br]in the Indian Ocean?" --

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no one really knew.

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There were two candidates,

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one off of Western Australia[br]and one in the Java Trench.

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We have this wonderful ship[br]with a brilliant sonar.

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We mapped both of them.

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We sent landers down[br]to the bottom and verified.

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It's actually in the center portion[br]of the Java Trench,

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which is where no one thought it was.

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In fact, every time we've completed[br]one of our major dives,

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we have to run off[br]to Wikipedia and change it

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because it's completely wrong.

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(Laughter)

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DB: So it probably takes longer[br]to get down there

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than the time you're able[br]to spend down there?

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VV: No, we actually spend[br]quite a bit of time.

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I have four days[br]of oxygen supply in the vessel.

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If I'm down there for four days,

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something's gone so wrong[br]I'm probably not going to use it,

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but it's about three hours down[br]to the deepest part of the ocean

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and then we can spend[br]usually three or four hours

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and then another three hours up.

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So you don't want to stay in there[br]for more than 10 or 11 hours.

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It can get a little tight.

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DB: Alright, so the bottom[br]of the Indian Ocean.

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And this is something that no one[br]besides you has ever seen before --

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VV: This is actually imagery[br]from one of our robotic landers.

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On the bottom right you can[br]actually see a robust assfish --

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that's what it's actually called.

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(Laughter)

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But you can see from the left[br]a creature that's never been seen before.

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It's actually a bottom-dwelling jellyfish[br]called a stalked ascidian,

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and none of them[br]have ever looked like this before.

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It actually has a small child[br]at the bottom of its stalk,

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and it just drifted across beautifully.

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So every single dive we have gone on,

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even though we're only down there[br]for a couple of hours,

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we have found three or four new species

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because these are places that have[br]been isolated for billions of years

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and no human being has ever[br]been down there to film them

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or take samples.

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And so this is extraordinary for us --

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(Applause)

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So what we are hoping --

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the main objective of our mission[br]is to build this tool.

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This tool is a door,

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because with this tool,

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we'll be able to make[br]more of them potentially

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and take scientists down[br]to do thousands of dives,

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to open that door to exploration

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and find things that we[br]had no idea even existed.

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DB: And so more people have been[br]to space than the bottom of the ocean.

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You're one of three.

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You're going to up that number,[br]you're going to give it away.

0:07:04.042,0:07:07.309
VV: Yeah, three people have dived[br]to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

0:07:07.333,0:07:09.476
The USS Trieste in 1960[br]with two individuals,

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James Cameron in 2012[br]with his Deep Sea Challenger --

0:07:12.042,0:07:13.601
thank you, Jim, great sub.

0:07:13.625,0:07:15.476
This is a third-generation technology.

0:07:15.500,0:07:18.476
We're not only going to try and go down,[br]actually in two weeks,

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but we're going to try[br]and do it multiple times,

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which has never been done before.

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If we can do that,[br]we'll have proven the technology

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and that door will not just go open,[br]it will stay open.

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(Applause)

0:07:30.792,0:07:32.101
DB: Fantastic. Good luck.

0:07:32.125,0:07:33.976
VV: Thank you very much.[br]DB: Thank you.

0:07:34.000,0:07:35.268
VV: Thank you all.

0:07:35.292,0:07:37.833
(Applause)