Director James Cameron prepares for a seven-mile solo

Avatar director James Cameron sets sights on another mysterious world – as he prepares for a seven-mile solo dive to the bottom of Pacific’s Mariana trench

Aims to be first human to visit bottom since January 1960
Solo submersible so cramped he can’t move his arms
First of several competing missions to deepest point on Earth

By Rob Waugh

Avatar director James Cameron is preparing for an attempt to be first human being in 50 years to visit the deepest point on Earth – the bottom of the Mariana Trench, seven miles down in the Pacific.
The director will start his attempt ‘within weeks’ – becoming the first of at least four teams racing to the ocean floor, an icy, alien environment with pressures 1,000 times higher than the surface.
Many liken the journey to man’s steps into space. ‘The deep trenches are the last unexplored frontier on our planet,’ says Cameron.