Ever wonder how to the deep blue sea looks like? We can always go diving at Redang and Sabah, but those sea-beds with white sand cannot be compared with the real deal that’s over thousands of feet under sea level.

More men have walked on the moon then diving into the depth of our blue planet. We’ve yet to explore completely what’s in our planet, so what makes us qualify to explore the space?

After letting everyone afford to fly among the clouds with the low-cost airline Virgin Airline, today, Sir Richard Branson, American sailor, pilot and explorer Chris Welsh, and submarine designer Graham Hawkes launched Virgin Oceanic, a project to explore “the last frontiers of our own Blue Planet: the very bottom of our seas.” . Of course, this won’t be a low-cost cruise.

Virgin Oceanic will see the world’s only submarine capable of taking a human being to such extreme depths make five dives over a two-year period, set up to 30 Guinness World Records and, by working with leading scientific institutions, open the eyes of the world to what lies in vast areas of the oceans for the first time in history. The Virgin Oceanic Submarine and her pilots will travel deeper and explore further than anyone in history.

The project includes a partnership with Google: “Using their mapping technology, Google hopes to chronicle the dives as they happen and share discoveries, footage and record breaking achievements with the world.”

Each dive will be piloted by different commanders with Chris Welsh diving to the Mariana Trench (36,201ft) with Sir Richard as back up pilot, and Sir Richard piloting to the Puerto Rico Trench (28,232ft) – the deepest trench in the Atlantic, which has never been explored before – with Chris Welsh acting as back up.  The Virgin Oceanic sub has the ability to ‘fly’ underwater for 10km at depth on each of the five dives and to fully explore this unknown environment.

Five Dives, Five Oceans, Two Years, One Epic Adventure
Mariana Trench                   Pacific Ocean                           11,033m    36,201ft
Puerto Rico Trench              Atlantic Ocean                         8,605m      28,232ft
Diamantina Trench             Indian Ocean                           8,047m      26,401ft
South Sandwich Trench      Southern Ocean                      7,235m      23,737ft
Molloy Deep                        Arctic Ocean                           5,608m      18,399ft

“Virgin Oceanic will expand the reach of human exploration on our planet. By promoting and utilizing new technology Virgin Oceanic will aid human kind’s ability to explore our Oceans, assist science in understanding our eco system and raise awareness of the challenges facing our Oceans.”  Sir Richard Branson

Looking at how Google’s involved in this, I won’t be surprised to see those sea creatures gearing up to fend off Google with their fins over their privacy. Lawsuits are inevitable.

SOURCE via Virgin Oceanic