维珍推深海潜艇，探索大洋最深处

    日前，在于加州尼古湖举办的绿色头脑风暴会议（Brainstorm GREEN）上，理查德•布兰森接受了《财富》（Fortune）总编赛安迪的采访，采访中他揭开了自己的最新深海潜艇——维珍海洋（Virgin Oceanic）的神秘面纱，他将乘着这艘潜艇探索各大洋的最深处。

    布兰森在一份关于维珍海洋项目的声明中说道：“维珍海洋将会扩展人类在这个星球上的探索范围。通过促进和利用新科技，维珍海洋将为人类探索大洋的能力提供帮助，帮助科学家了解我们的生态系统，并唤醒大众的意识，使他们了解我们的海洋面临着哪些挑战。”

    布兰森告诉赛安迪：“海洋底部完全没有得到充分的探索。日本、美国或中国的潜艇最远只下潜到了18000英尺，但有些海沟深达36000英尺，而且大洋深处还有很多尚不为人知的物种。知道大洋深处有什么是很重要的。这正是吸引我们的地方。”

    在一份声明中，布兰森公布了他和另一位探险家克里斯•威尔什驾乘“维珍海洋”探索海沟的计划：“每次潜航都由不同的操控者轮流驾驶。首先由克里斯•威尔什驾驶潜艇潜入马里亚纳海沟（36201英尺），由理查德先生担任后备驾驶员；第二次潜航由理查德先生驾驶潜艇潜入波多黎各海沟（28232英尺）——也就是大西洋最深的海沟，人类以前还从来没有探索过这里。这次将由克里斯•威尔什担任后备。在即将进行的五次潜航中，维珍海洋潜艇有能力在水下10公里深处‘飞行’，以充分探索这些未知的环境。”

    布兰森将在未来两年里造访五大洋的最深处：太平洋的马里亚纳海沟、大西洋的波多黎各海沟、印度洋的迪亚曼蒂纳海沟、南大西洋的南桑德韦奇海沟，以及北冰洋的莫洛伊海沟。

    译者：朴成奎

    Yesterday at the Brainstorm GREEN conference in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Richard Branson sat down with Fortune Managing Editor Andy Serwer for a conversation where he unveiled his latest venture, Virgin Oceanic, through which he will explore the deepest underwater areas of the world.

    "Virgin Oceanic will expand the reach of human exploration on our planet. By promoting and utilising 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," Branson said in a statement about the project.

    Branson told Serwer, "the exploration at the bottom of the oceans -- it's really not been explored at all. The furthest that any Japanese submarine or American submarine or Chinese submarine goes down is 18,000 feet, and yet there are trenches in the ocean that are like 36,000 feet … and there's something like [unintelligible number] species in the oceans we don't know about. And it's quite important...that we know what's going on down there. So that's the hitch."

    In a statment, Virgin Oceanic explained how Branson and his co-commander will explore the ocean's trenches: "Each dive will be piloted by different commanders with Chris Welsh diving to the Mariana Trench (36,201 ft.) 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."

    Branson will visit the deepest points of the world's oceans over the course of two years: The Mariana Trench in the Pacific, the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic, the Diamantina Trench in the Indian, the South Sandwich Trench in the Southern Atlantic Ocean and the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean.