mapping the deep 8 there’s plenty to talk about. Some of it is critical to the mission, such as making sure Dawn is familiar with the basic controls of the Limiting Factor in the unlikely event that Victor should become incapacitated. Dawn is well versed in submersibles, having done her PhD work using Alvin to study hydrothermal vents in mid-ocean ridges and Pisces V to study deep coral reefs in American Samoa. (Though they’re both called subs, a submersible differs from a submarine in that it needs to be launched from a support vessel, whereas a submarine can launch itself and return on its own.) As a result, Dawn’s able to settle in and approach a dive of this magnitude as she would any other, as a professional. With that mindset, she barely notices when the Limiting Factor floats past the 2,500-meter (8,202-foot) mark, making this now the deepest she has ever descended. Compared with her shallower dives, the major difference in Dawn’s preparation was a fasting regimen, since there’s no latrine aboard the Limiting Factor. The round trip to and from Challenger Deep often takes at least 10 hours, so Dawn had to reduce her food consumption over two days, with a final snack and sip of water a few hours before launch. Apart from that, there is little difference in the experience of the slow, dreamlike descent. If anything, it’s more comfortable than her past dives, given the length of the dives the Limiting Factor has been designed for. Even the pressure outside the sub, increasing to almost unimaginable levels, is imperceptible to the Dawn (left) and Victor at the controls of the Limiting Factor.
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