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Film director James Cameron has begun an attempt to become the first person in 50 years to visit the deepest part of the ocean.

Cameron is travelling 11km (7 miles) down to the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, where he hopes to spend six hours exploring and filming.

A manned descent to the trench was last attempted in 1960, by US Navy Lt Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard.

They spent about 20 minutes on the ocean floor but their landing kicked up silt, meaning their view was obscured.

This is only the second manned expedition to this ocean’s deepest depths - the first took place in 1960.

Follow at https://twitter.com/#!/DeepChallenge

Hollywood director James Cameron may be close to making a dive to the deepest place on Earth.

In a one-man submarine, he plans to dive 11km (seven miles) down beneath the waves to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific.

There has only ever been one manned dive there, and that was half a century ago.

Mr Cameron and his team have set sail to reach the trench and are now waiting for calm weather to begin the dive.

[…]

If they can get a few days of good weather on their side, the team hopes to first make an unmanned 11km dive with the sub, to check it works properly at this deepest of ocean depths - and then it will be time for James Cameron to enter the craft and take the reins.

[…]

It is packed full of 3D cameras and huge lighting systems so that the director can capture the excitement of the voyage all the way to the bottom. […] The director plans to release a documentary with footage captured on his dives - but he also has science in mind.

Awesome (and there’s more at nature.com).

It’s just a shame there doesn’t seem to be any live information or video (no tweets?!) from the ship (not the sub, presumably). The moon landings managed it!