This is pretty cool. Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench | | | Scroll Down | | | | | | Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench
Aparently they were better back then than they are now because I had heard on the radio that subs couldn't get to the deep water horizon well. BWM
Even if the Trieste could still dive, she is 'observation' only - not equipped to do any work. Strictly up & down, like an underwater balloon - no real maneuvering capability. We COULD build such a manned vessel, for DEEP work - but would it get enough use to be funded? Robot vehicles are smaller and cheaper - same way NASA envisions near-future space exploration - man is keeping his feet on the ground awhile longer. I have read of the "JEM" suit - don't know it's depth limitation though. Goes way deeper than a regular rubber-suited diver though. Maybe SC could fill us in on manned depth limitations?
IIRC, Trieste was ballasted with lead shot, and the buoyancy/floatation was provided by gasoline in the non pressurized top section. Very limited horizontal maneuverability as wolfie says. No tether for any sort of control and as wolfie also says, observation only. When done looking around, the lead shot was dumped (in a controlled way, of course, to prevent too fast of an ascent.) There have been no others since then that have been manned to that depth that I know of. The Navy had a "research" sub that could go deep, but not THAT deep. NR-1 was a very small nuke powered sub with some limited manipulation capacity. Manned submersibles GOOD. Robots BETTER (most of the time) for heavy work. Thus spake me, and maybe me only.
Found a good Wiki write-up on the deep diving suits - but we AIN'T going to the BOP in it......... Atmospheric diving suit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Can't go any deeper than than they did in 1960, chalanger deep Which is the Marrianas trench 35,814 ft 10,916 meters thats the deepist place on earth. XR750