What's at the bottom of the ocean -- and how we're getting there

Victor Vescovo is leading the first-ever human expeditions to the deepest point of each of the five oceans. In conversation with TED science curator David Biello, Vescovo discusses the technology that's powering the explorations -- a titanium submersible designed to withstand extraordinary conditions -- and shows footage of a never-before-seen creature taken during his journey to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

David Biello: So Victor,
what have you been up to?

Victor Vescovo: That's the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean,

and I guess I read too much
Jules Verne as a young boy,

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

what is now the most advanced and deepest
diving submersible on the planet,

and I have the ability
to personally pilot it too.

So this was us in December of last year,

for the first time --
the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

DB: And nobody's seen that before right?

That's just you.
VV: No.

Well, now everybody else.

DB: Who does that?

Like --

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

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

like SpaceX or Blue Origin --

those guys --

and we're going the other direction.

So it's a wonderful era

of private individuals
spending their resources

to develop technologies
that can take us to places

that have never been explored before,

and the oceans of the world is --

it's almost a cliché to say
it's 70 percent of our entire planet,

and of that, 95 percent is unexplored.

So what we're trying to do
with our expedition

is to build and prove out a submersible

that can go to any point
on the bottom of the planet

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

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

VV: Right.

Now the tool is the submarine,
the Limiting Factor.

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

supported by the support ship,
the Pressure Drop.

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

that keeps it at one atmosphere,

and it has the ability to dive repeatedly

down to the very deepest
point of the ocean.

DB: So like the SpaceX
of ocean exploration?

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

but I pilot my own vehicles.

(Laughter)

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

VV: Yeah, I could take someone down there.

So, Elon, if you're listening,

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

(Laughter)

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

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

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

VV: It's more than that.

It's about 16,000 psi.

So the issue is that we have
this titanium sphere

that allows us to go down
to these extreme depths

and come up repeatedly.

That's never been done before.

The Challenger Deep has been dived twice,

once in 1960 and once in 2012
by James Cameron,

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

This is the first commercially
certified submersible

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

including a scientist.

We're very proud that we took down

the deepest-diving
British citizen in history

just three weeks ago,
Dr. Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University

who was down with us on the Java Trench.

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

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

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

We go down quite a distance

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

It's very different
from the career I had previously

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

the wind is whipping, it's very cold.

This is the opposite.
It's much more technical.

It's much more about precision
in using the instruments

and troubleshooting
anything that can go wrong.

But if something really
goes wrong in the submersible,

you're not going to know it.

(Laughter)

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

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

it's not that bad
because if it was really bad

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

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

but it's actually a very safe submersible.

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

but I do trust titanium, I trust math

and I trust finite element analysis,

which is how you figure out

whether or not
things like this can survive

these extraordinary
pressures and conditions.

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

This is a truly unique craft.

VV: That was the real trick --

is actually building a titanium sphere

that was accurate
to within .1 percent of machine.

Titanium is a hard metal to work

and a lot of people
haven't figured it out,

but we were very fortunate.

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

which when you're subjecting
something to pressure,

that's the strongest
geometry you can have.

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

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

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

that the hatch is closed?

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

Number one is close the hatch securely.

Number two is go back to rule number one.

DB: Alright so, Atlantic Ocean: check.

Southern Ocean: check.

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

I know why.

It's really, really hostile.

The weather is awful.

The word collision comes to mind.

But we did that one, yes.

Glad that's over --
DB: Yeah --

VV: Thank you.

(Applause)

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

And now the Indian Ocean,
as Kelly mentioned.

VV: Yeah, that was three weeks ago.

We were fortunate enough
to actually solve the mystery.

If someone had asked me three weeks ago,

"What is the deepest point
in the Indian Ocean?" --

no one really knew.

There were two candidates,

one off of Western Australia
and one in the Java Trench.

We have this wonderful ship
with a brilliant sonar.

We mapped both of them.

We sent landers down
to the bottom and verified.

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

which is where no one thought it was.

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

we have to run off
to Wikipedia and change it

because it's completely wrong.

(Laughter)

DB: So it probably takes longer
to get down there

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

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

I have four days
of oxygen supply in the vessel.

If I'm down there for four days,

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

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

and then we can spend
usually three or four hours

and then another three hours up.

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

It can get a little tight.

DB: Alright, so the bottom
of the Indian Ocean.

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

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

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

that's what it's actually called.

(Laughter)

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

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

and none of them
have ever looked like this before.

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

and it just drifted across beautifully.

So every single dive we have gone on,

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

we have found three or four new species

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

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

or take samples.

And so this is extraordinary for us --

(Applause)

So what we are hoping --

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

This tool is a door,

because with this tool,

we'll be able to make
more of them potentially

and take scientists down
to do thousands of dives,

to open that door to exploration

and find things that we
had no idea even existed.

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

You're one of three.

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

VV: Yeah, three people have dived
to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

The USS Trieste in 1960
with two individuals.

James Cameron in 2012
with his Deep Sea Challenger --

thank you, Jim, great sub.

This is a third-generation technology.

We're not only going to try and go down,
actually in two weeks,

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

which has never been done before.

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

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

(Applause)

DB: Fantastic. Good luck.

VV: Thank you very much.
DB: Thank you.

VV: Thank you all.

(Applause)