Moscow. June 22. INTERFAX-KB "Malachite" is developing a habitable vehicle capable of diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, according to the company's annual report for 2020.
"In 2020, the Company launched work on the creation of a unique ultra-deep-water habitable complex with a device capable of diving and working at depths of up to 11,000 meters," the document says.
Earlier, in an interview with Interfax, the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Alexey Rakhmanov, said that USC could create a specialized center for the development of deep-sea unmanned vehicles.
In March 2018, Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov announced plans to organize an expedition to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. According to him, it is planned that the Russian polar explorer Artur Chilingarov will also take part in the dive.
In February 2021, Rakhmanov told Interfax that the corporation had decided in favor of financing a project that was different from the one proposed by Konyukhov. The head of the USC noted that the development of the bathyscaphe will take into account the technical groundwork obtained during the construction of the Vityaz-D unmanned vehicle, which descended to the bottom of the depression in 2020. According to him, the crew of the device will not exceed two people.