Branson to Explore Depths of Oceans for Google

Virgin wants to go to the deepest part of our oceans.

What would you do? If you were Bill Gates, you would find the purpose of your life in your charity. If you were Larry page, you might buy be bored with your Boeing airliner and think about buying one of the old space shuttles.  If you were Richard Branson, you'd be continuously thinking about going to places no one else can. That's why you would have your own private island and why you invest in space tourism.

Besides Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic, Branson has just announced Virgin Oceanic, a venture to explore the "last frontiers of our own blue planet." Branson built a $17 million  submarine with the purpose to dive to the bottom of the deepest areas of the ocean, including the Mariana Trench, more than 36,000 feet below sea level.  

You could be jealous, but Branson said that he will be providing data captured during the mission to Google, which will be added to Google Earth - which would include 3D tracks of the dives. The mission is expected to last about two years. A teaser video can be seen here.