Advanced Submarine To Visit The Deepest Parts Of Ocean

NEWPORT HARBOR, Calif. (CBS13) -- Designed to endure pressures up to 1,500 times what a jetliner can stand and expected to travel to the bottom of the ocean and back in just a few hours, a new submarine may allow man to finally study the deepest parts of the planet's surface.

A solo submersible from Virgin Oceanic will attempt to visit the five deepest parts of the ocean: The Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic, the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean, the Diamantina Trench in the Indian Ocean, and the South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Ocean.

"I'll be making the first dive on the Mariana, which is the deepest dive," said chief pilot Chris Welsh. "We're doing that first because the craft will be at its strongest at that point."

Only five inches of glass will separate the pilot from the crushing depths of the ocean, and the risks have kept explorers from examining all but a small part of the ocean floor.

"There are a variety of risks when you go in the ocean. There's a risk of the bottom pressure, there's a risk of the unknown," Welsh said.

Billionaire Sir Richard Branson spearheaded the business effort and will be making one of the deep sea dives himself.

"You have to accept that there are risks," Branson said.

The first dive is expected to take place later this year, with the other dives coming in the next two years.