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When James Cameron was about 14, he embarked on his first underwater mission. Well, not Cameron so much as his mouse. He put it in his homemade submersible and watched it sink to all of four or five feet into Chippawa Creek, in the Canadian suburbs of Niagara Falls. The mouse survived, so the missions got bigger and bolder. Last year, Cameron, 58, became the first-ever solo explorer to touch the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the deepest surface on Earth. Since then, he has done something possibly more extraordinary: Earlier this week, he donated the submersible and all the related technology to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a private research operation in Cape Cod, where he will also join its Board of Directors and a new robotics team.
大概14歲時，詹姆斯·卡梅隆就進行了他的首次水下任務。當然，下水的不是卡梅隆，而是他的老鼠。他把那只老鼠放在他自制的潛水艇里，然后看著它沉入加拿大尼亞加拉瀑布附近的奇帕瓦河河底。這條河總共只有四五英尺深。那只老鼠活了下來，因此卡梅隆的潛水任務越做越大、越做越勇。去年，58歲的卡梅隆成為首個獨自下潛至太平洋馬里亞納海溝“挑戰者深淵”底部的探險家。那里是世界海洋的最深處。此后，他做了一件可能更加不同尋常的事情。三月底，他把這個深潛器和相關技術都捐獻給了伍茲霍爾海洋研究所（Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution）。這個私人研究所位于科德角（Cape Cod），卡梅隆將加入該研究所的董事會和新的機器人研究團隊。
Cameron's move is a rare one. While the frontiers of exploration have been carried out largely in the private sector over the past decade -- Richard Branson'sVirgin Atlantic, Elon Musk's Space X, and the like -- the machines and technologies involved are often billionaire playthings, shrouded in mystery and intellectual property rights. The moneyed moguls themselves have tended to be less than civic-minded with their toys. After Steve Fossett became the first person to circumnavigate the world by balloon, in 2002, he donated his capsule to the National Air & Space Museum, where it has been on display since. He did not give it to meteorologists to dissect.
卡梅隆此舉很少見。10年來，前沿探險主要由私營公司進行，例如理查德·布蘭森的維珍航空（Virgin Atlantic）和埃倫·穆斯克的太空探索技術公司（Space X），相關的設備和技術常常是富豪們的玩物，披著神秘和知識產權的面紗。富豪們往往不會把他們的玩具捐贈給科研機構。2002年，斯蒂夫·福賽特成為搭乘熱氣球環游世界的第一人。后來，他把這個熱氣球吊艙捐贈給了美國航空航天博物館（National Air & Space Museum），一直展出至今。他沒有把它交給氣象學家去分解剖析。
In prepping for his deep-sea dive, Cameron did a test run of sorts at the New Britain Trench, in the Solomon Islands of Papua New Guinea. He was amazed at how little scientific data there was on the trench. "We're always talking about space," he said recently at a meeting of the Explorers Club in New York, "and I loved sci-fi and I thought space was it too. But there's an alien world right here on Earth, in the oceans." Cameron drove home the point: "We say we've been to the bottom of the ocean. But that's like parachuting into a cornfield in Nebraska at midnight, walking around for a few hours with a flashlight, and saying you've explored America. We need more."
為了做好深海下潛的準備，卡梅隆在巴布亞新幾內亞的所羅門群島新不列顛海溝進行了海試。之前有關這條海溝的科學數據如此之少，令他吃驚不已。“我們總是在討論太空，”最近他在紐約探險者俱樂部（Explorers Club）的一次會議上說。“我喜歡科幻小說，我覺得太空也充滿了科幻的感覺。但在地球的海洋里就存在著這樣一個外星世界。”卡梅隆一鐘見血地指出：‘我們說，我們已經到達了海底。但這好像是在午夜空降到內布拉斯加州的某塊玉米地，拿著手電筒在四周圍走了幾個小時，然后就說已經探索了美國。我們需要更多信息。“
Cameron's submersible, the Deepsea Challenger, is valued at around $100 million, much of which Cameron paid for out-of-pocket. It is the kind of devotion to brand-new gadgetry that is virtually nonexistent in academic and publicly funded circles. By contrast, ALVIN, researchers' go-to deep-sea submersible, was decommissioned for a refit in 2010 after five decades in the field. "It's like adding a jet engine to a propeller fleet," said Andy Bowen, Woods Hole's director of its National Deep Submergence Facility.
卡梅隆的“深海挑戰者”（Deepsea Challenger）號深潛器價值大約1億美元，其中很多都是卡梅隆自掏腰包。這就像是致力于一種在學術圈子和公募圈子里幾乎不存在的全新玩意兒。相比之下，科研人員的“阿爾文”（ALVIN）號深潛器在服役50年后，在2010年退役進行改造升級。“這就像是把噴氣發動機安裝到螺旋槳飛機上，”伍茲霍爾海洋研究所的國家深潛設備主管安迪·鮑文說。
The Deepsea Challenger dove to approximately 10,900 meters; current standard-issue research equipment can only go to 6,500 or 7,000 meters, Bowen said. "It'll help us transform from a Lewis & Clark approach to one of holistic, constant observation," he added. Agreeing with Cameron's cornfield quip, Bowen said, "So much of what we've done has just been Sputnik stuff, showing off for that moment, for the bragging rights. But it didn't really yield good scientific data."
鮑文指出，“深海挑戰者”號下潛了大約10,900米，而目前的標準版科研深潛器只能下潛6,500到7,000米。鮑文說：“它將幫助我們從Lewis & Clark觀察方法過渡到全方位不間斷的觀察。”他贊同卡梅隆的那個玉米地的比喻。“我們做的很多事情都是像前蘇聯第一顆人造衛星那種東西，只是為了一時的榮耀和權利的宣揚，并沒有真正帶來有用的科學數據。”
Bowen said that already he was planning on using some of the Deepsea Challenger's technology on existing missions in coming weeks. But, he noted, "how it's going to help explore the ocean is really a work in progress at this point, to be frank." When federal scientists work with a submersible designed for human occupancy, such as the three-person ALVIN, it requires strict certification. Cameron's device operated outside of that bureaucracy, meaning it's uncertified technology. "This is a prototype," said Susan Avery, the president of Woods Hole. "It will take a lot of work to take it from what it is to what we want it to be, which is a practical workhorse."
鮑文說，他打算在今后幾周里把“深海挑戰者”號的部分技術用于現有任務。但他指出：“坦白地說，目前我們還在研究，它到底將如何幫助我們探索海洋。”如果美國聯邦科學家要使用載人潛水器，例如可搭載三人的“阿爾文”號，需要嚴格的審批。卡梅隆的深潛器是在美國聯邦政府管轄范圍之外的地方使用，意味著它的技術未經美國政府審批。“這是個原型機，”伍茲霍爾海洋研究所的所長蘇珊·艾弗里說。“還需要做很多工作才能把目前的它變成我們想要的它。這是個非常實際的累活。”
Avery was quick to point out, though, that "this kind of public-private partnership is the new normal. It's a wonderful opportunity. But there are also not many other opportunities."
但艾弗里很快就說到了點子上：“這種公私合作已經成為新的常態。這是個好機會。但其他的機會并不是很多。”
In the age when America's space shuttles are all mothballed in museums while other nations boast of plans to head to the Moon or to Mars, Cameron's ocean deal provides cold comfort. Even the mega-rich have needed help of their own; Fossett's capsule, Air & Space dutifully notes, is officially called The Bud Light Spirit of Freedom.
如今，美國的航天飛機全部都被封存到博物館里，而其他國家也都在大張旗鼓地宣傳自己奔向月球、奔向火星的計劃。因此，卡梅倫在海洋探索事業上的捐贈并不能帶來太多安慰。就連這些超級富豪們自己都需要幫助。美國航空航天博物館恰如其分地宣布，福賽特的吊艙已經被正式命名為“自由精神萌芽之光”（The Bud Light Spirit of Freedom）。
