Deep Impact: engineering an expedition to the oceans' deepest points

It’s something of a cliché. But we still know more about our closest cosmic neighbour than the depths of our own oceans.

While 12 astronauts have walked on the surface of the moon, just two manned missions have made it to the deepest known point on the Earth’s seabed: Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench (10,916m).

And although robotic probes have been sent to almost every corner of our solar system, the murkiest depths of our own planet remain a mystery: a risky frontier of bone-crushing pressures and near-freezing temperatures where navigation is difficult and the prospect of rescue remote.

Which makes a current effort to land a manned-submersible on the deepest parts of the world’s five oceans all the more exciting and impressive.

The so-called Five Deeps mission is the brainchild of thrill-seeking US financier Victor Vescovo, who is hoping to add the bottom of the world’s five oceans to an explorer’s CV that already includes the ‘seven summits’ and skiing expeditions to the North and South poles.