Filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron emerges from the Deepsea Challenger submersible after his successful solo dive to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean, Monday March 26, 2011. The dive was part of Deepsea Challenge, a joint scientific expedition by Cameron, the National Geographic Society and Rolex to conduct deep-ocean research. (AP Photo/Mark Theissen, National Geographic) ONE TIME USE
(AP) -- , filmmaker James Cameron says the last frontier on Earth looks an awful lot like another planet: desolate and foreboding.
Cameron on Monday described his three hours on the bottom of the Marianas Trench, nearly 7 miles down in a dark freezing and alien place. He is the only person to dive there solo, using a sub he helped design. He is the first person to reach that depth, 35,576 feet, since it was initially explored in 1960.
Cameron says he worried about being too busy with exploration duties to take in just how amazing this place was. That happened to Apollo astronauts.
So he says he took time to stare at the moon-like barren surface and to appreciate how alien it is.
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