MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax-AVN) - The Admiralty Shipyards, an affiliate of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), has agreed to build a bathyscaphe to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench, according to Admiralty Shipyards head Alexander Buzakov.
"We have accepted the offer to build a submersible to dive in the Mariana Trench. The objective we've been set is highly important. A design bureau will prepare the blueprints, and we will build it," Buzakov said at a press conference at Interfax's main office.
USC head Alexei Rakhmanov told Interfax in October that Russia would start designing a bathyscaphe to explore the Mariana Trench in 2019.
"I believe it will happen next year," Rakhmanov said when asked a relevant question.
"We are working on a detailed technical assignment and looking for suppliers of the main types of component parts and equipment. A technical design will be prepared next, and we will agree on additional funding if necessary. After that, we'll build it and dive," he said.
Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov discussed plans to explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench in March 2018. He said Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov would take part in the dive.
The bottom of the Mariana Trench has been visited four times. The Challenger Deep, the deepest known point of the trench, was visited in 1960 by Don Walsh of the United States and Jacques Piccard of Switzerland, who used the Trieste bathyscaphe. U.S. filmmaker James Cameron reached the Challenger Deep in 2012. The area has also been visited by the uninhabited submersibles Kaiko and Nereus.