Jacques Piccard - wikipedia Jacques Piccard This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2008 ) Jacques Piccard Jacques Piccard ( 1979 ) ( 1922 - 07 - 28 ) 28 July 1922 Brussels, Belgium 1 November 2008 ( 2008 - 11 - 01 ) ( aged 86 ) Cully, Switzerland Nationality Swiss Children Bertrand Piccard ( son ) Parent ( s ) Auguste Piccard ( father ) Relatives Jean Felix Piccard ( uncle ) Known for Bathyscaphe Awards Hubbard Medal ( 2012 ) Jacques Piccard ( 28 July 1922 -- 1 November 2008 ) was a Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater vehicles for studying ocean currents. In the Challenger Deep, he and Lt. Don Walsh of the United States Navy were the first people to explore the deepest part of the world 's ocean, and the deepest location on the surface of Earth 's crust, the Mariana Trench, located in the western North Pacific Ocean. Contents 1 Family life 2 Challenger Deep mission 3 Ben Franklin mission 4 Influence and distinctions 5 Other activities 6 Bibliography 7 See also 8 References 9 External links Family Life Jacques Piccard was born in Brussels, Belgium, to Auguste Piccard, who was himself an adventurer and engineer. Jacques ' father Auguste twice beat the record for reaching the highest altitude in a balloon, during 1931 -- 1932. The Piccard family thus had the unique distinction of breaking world records for both the highest flight and the deepest dive. Jules Piccard ( professor of chemistry ) Auguste Piccard ( physicist, aeronaut, balloonist, hydronaut ) Jacques Piccard ( hydronaut ) Bertrand Piccard ( aeronaut, balloonist ) Jean Felix Piccard ( organic chemist, aeronaut, and balloonist ) Jeannette Piccard ( wife of Jean Felix ) ( aeronaut and balloonist ) Don Piccard ( balloonist ) Jacques 's father, who had already set altitude records in his balloon, started using the buoyancy technique used in balloons for developing a submersible vehicle, the bathyscaphe. Jacques initially started out his career by teaching economics at University of Geneva while continuing to help his father improve the bathyscaphe to demonstrate its potential for operating in deep waters. During that period Piccard also completed a diploma at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. Together, Piccard and his father built three bathyscaphes between 1948 and 1955, which reached record depths of 4,600 feet and 10,000 feet ( the last one was bought by the government ). With this success, the younger Piccard abandoned economics to collaborate with his father on further improving the bathyscaphe and demonstrating its practicality for exploration and research. Jacques 's son Bertrand Piccard is continuing his family traditions. He commanded the first non-stop balloon flight around the world in March 1999. Challenger deep mission Don Walsh ( left ) and Jacques Piccard ( centre ), in the Bathyscaphe Trieste. Jacques sought financial help from the U.S. Navy, which at that time was exploring various ways of designing submarines for underwater research. Jacques was welcomed to the U.S. to demonstrate his bathyscaphe, now named the Trieste. Impressed by his designs, the U.S. Navy bought the vessel and hired Piccard as a consultant. Recognizing the strategic value of a workable submersible for submarine salvage and rescue, the Navy began testing the Trieste for greater depths. With his Trieste able to reach depths of 24,000 feet, Piccard and his colleagues planned on an even greater challenge -- a voyage to the bottom of the sea. On 23 January 1960, Piccard and Lt. Don Walsh reached the floor of the Mariana Trench located in the western North Pacific Ocean. The depth of the descent was measured at 10,916 meters ( 35,813 feet ) ; later, more accurate, measurements during 1995 found the Mariana Trench to be slightly less deep at 10,911 m ( 35,797 ft ). The descent took almost five hours. The bathyscaphe carried no scientific equipment and no experiments were conducted ; the mission 's purpose was merely to prove that the depth could be reached. The descent progressed without incident until 30,000 feet, when the crew heard a loud crack. They continued the dive, however, finally touching down in `` snuff - colored ooze '' at 35,800 feet. When they reached the featureless seabed, they saw a flat fish as well as a new type of shrimp. Marine biologists later disputed their observations, claiming that no fish could survive the 17,000 psi pressure at such depths. Upon discovering cracks in the viewing windows, Piccard cut the voyage short. After only a 20 - minute stay on the bottom, they began dumping ballast for their return to the surface, and the damaged vessel returned to its escort ships without incident in three hours and 15 minutes. The historic dive received worldwide attention, and Piccard wrote an account of it, Seven Miles Down, with Robert Deitz, a renowned geologist who had helped plan the mission. A planned return expedition, however, never occurred. The Trieste was expensive to maintain and operate. It was incapable of collecting samples and could not take photographs and so had little scientific data to show for its voyages. The original vessel was retired in 1961, although a rebuilt version later located the remains of two lost U.S. Navy nuclear submarines, the Thresher and the Scorpion. Grumman / Piccard PX - 15 / Ben Franklin Ben Franklin mission On 14 July 1969, just two days before the Apollo 11 launch, the Ben Franklin, also known as the Grumman / Piccard PX - 15 mesoscaphe, was towed to the high - velocity center of the Gulf Stream off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. Once on site, the Ben Franklin with its six - man, international crew descended to 1,000 feet off of Riviera Beach, Florida and drifted 1,444 miles north with the current for more than four weeks, surfacing near Maine. Crew members of the Grumman / Piccard PX - 15 / Ben Franklin The crew consisted of Jacques Piccard as the mission leader ; Erwin Aebersold, another Swiss, as Piccard 's handpicked pilot and main assistant to Piccard and project engineer during the Franklin 's design and construction. Grumman selected a Navy submariner named Don Kazimir to be captain. The U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office sent Frank Busby to conduct a bottom survey along the drift track over the Continental Shelf and the Royal Navy sent Ken Haigh, an acoustic specialist, who studied underwater acoustics and performed sonic experiments up and down the water column throughout the mission. The sixth man was Chet May from NASA. His specialty was `` man working in space ''. Wernher von Braun learned about the Franklin mission, visited the submarine in Palm Beach, and considered the mission a kind of analogue to a prolonged mission in space, such as on the forthcoming Skylab. He appointed May as a NASA observer to accompany the mission and study the effects of prolonged isolation on the human crew. Named for the American patriot and inventor who was one of the first to chart the Gulf Stream, the 50 - foot Ben Franklin was built between 1966 and 1968 in Switzerland for Piccard and the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. It has been restored and now resides in the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, Canada. Influence and distinctions Ambient artists Mathieu Ruhlmann and Celer collaboratively released an album called Mesoscaphe in 2008, dedicated to the voyage of the Ben Franklin. He was awarded the Howard N. Potts Medal in 1972. In 1981, Piccard became a founding member of the World Cultural Council. On 1 February 2008, Piccard was honored Doctor honoris causa at the Catholic University of Louvain ( Louvain - la - Neuve ). Other activities Piccard was the founder of the Foundation for the Study and Protection of Seas and Lakes, based in Cully, Switzerland. Jacques Piccard constructed four submarines and applied for at least one US patent ( D200, 506 ) for a submarine : Mésoscaphe Auguste Piccard, the world 's first passenger submarine, built for the 1964 Swiss national exhibition Ben Franklin ( PX - 15 ) F. - A. Forel ( PX - 28 ) PX - 44 Bibliography Piccard, Jacques ; Robert S. Dietz ( 1961 ). Seven Miles Down. Putnam. p. 249. Piccard, Jacques ( 1971 ). The Sun Beneath the Sea. Scribner. p. 405 pp. ISBN 0 - 684 - 31101 - 1. See also Project Nekton References Jump up ^ `` Deep sea adventurer Jacques Piccard is dead ''. Swissinfo.ch. 1 November 2008. Retrieved 2008 - 11 - 01. Jump up ^ `` The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life 's Questions ''. Answers. Retrieved 2016 - 10 - 17. Jump up ^ Piccard 1971 Jump up ^ Benson, Charles Dunlap and William David Compton. Living and Working in Space : A History of Skylab. NASA publication SP - 4208. Jump up ^ `` Mesoscaphe ''. Spekk.net. Retrieved 2016 - 10 - 17. Jump up ^ `` About Us ''. World Cultural Council. Retrieved November 8, 2016. Jump up ^ Jacques Piccard, Docteur honoris causa 2008 ( Université Catholique de Louvain ) Archived 3 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Piccard, J. ( 1965 - 03 - 02 ). `` US Patent D200, 506 for a Submarine ''. Lausanne, Switzerland : 10000000000. Retrieved 2008 - 11 - 01. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jacques Piccard. Page from Jacques ' son Bertrand Piccard 's website Official press release regarding Challenger Deep operation. The Ben Franklin - Grumman / Piccard PX - 15. From Sea to Shining Sea : The Story of the Ben Franklin Gulf Stream Drift Mission. Obituary in Times of London Obituary by Marcus Williamson in The Independent, UK Founding members of the World Cultural Council Christian B. Anfinsen Werner Arber James Baddiley M. Balasegaram Frank Barnaby Christiaan Barnard Colin Blakemore Aage N. Bohr Norman Borlaug Harold G. Callan André Frédéric Cournand William J. Darby Eduardo de Robertis Cornelis de Jager Guy Blaudin de Thé Jean - François Denisse Venancio Deulofeu Frank J. Dixon Richard S. Doll Audouin Dollfus Jacques - Émile Dubois Gerald Durrell Francisco J. Dy John C. Eccles Paul Ehrlich Manfred Eigen Mohammed El Fasi Ernest L. Eliel Kenneth O. Emergy José Rafael Estrada Hans J. Eysenck Don W. Fawcett David J. Finney Val L. Fitch Carl G. Gahmberg Alfred D. Hershey Gerhard Herzberg David H. Hubel Osmo H. Järvi Reginald V. Jones Adrian Kantrowitz Nathan O. Kaplan Leo A. Kaprio Vasso Karageorghis Peter E. Kent Donald W. Kerst Seymour S. Kety Prem N. Kirpal Georges B. Koelle Walther Manshard Georges Mathé William D. McElroy Henry McIlwain John McMichael Jerrold Meinwald Harry Melville Desmond J. Morris Giuseppe Moruzzi Nevill Mott Vernon B. Mountcastle Robert S. Mulliken Walter H. Munk Ilie G. Murgulescu Jayant V. Narlikar Louis E.F. Néel Yuval Ne'eman Bernhard H. Neumann William A. Nierenberg Marshall W. Nirenberg George E. Palade Arthur B. Pardee David Phillips Jacques Piccard Jens J. Pindborg Comlan A.A. Quenum Hermann Rahn G.N. Ramachandran Gunnar Randers Chintamani N.R. Rao Rex Richards Jean Rösch Abraham J.A. Roux Stanley K. Runcorn Donald H. Sadler Hakim Muhammad Saeed Nobufusa Saito Abdus Salam Stuart J. Saunders Menahem Max Schiffer William G. Schneider Glenn T. Seaborg Ernest R. Sears Frederick Seitz Leonard T. Skeggs Stefan Ślopek George J. Smets George D. Snell Leonard Sosnowky Roger W. Sperry Lyman Spitzer Frederick Stewart Heikki Suomalainen Pol Swings Charles Tanford Henry Taube John M. Tedder Edward Teller Howard Temin Harold Thompson Peter C. Thonemann Phillip V. Tobias Alexander R. Todd Jan Peter Toennies Andrzej Trautman Jean L.F. Tricart Ioan Ursu Constantin Vago Eugene van Tamelen Ulf S. von Euler Alan Walsh William J. Whelan Karel F. Wiesner Rosalyn S. Yalow John Z. Young VIAF : 12433745 LCCN : nr95016364 ISNI : 0000 0000 6651 1154 GND : 121534081 SUDOC : 084333456 BNF : cb128105383 ( data ) HDS : 28906 NDL : 00525149 SNAC : w6cp96m3 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Piccard&oldid=825735701 '' Categories : 1922 births 2008 deaths Swiss engineers Swiss inventors People from Brussels Howard N. 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Question: who was the first man to reach the deepest part of the ocean
Answer: Jacques Piccard