Guillermo Söhnlein is aiming to send another submersible down to the depths of the ocean in near pitch black conditions - he says it's the best way he can think of to honor the five men who died.

The co-founder of OceanGate, the company whose sub imploded on the way to the wreckage of the Titanic, is launching a new expedition to the ‘Portal of Hell’ in the Bahamas.

Guillermo Söhnlein founded OceanGate with Stockton Rush in 2009 - Rush was one of the five people who were killed last year when the company’s ocean submersible imploded so violently it's believed all the passengers were vaporized instantly at the bottom of the ocean after losing contact with the surface.

They were 45 minutes into a dive estimated to take 2 hours, and the disappearance of the vessel sparked a frantic search and rescue operation, as people feared the submersible could be adrift with the men locked inside, slowly running out of oxygen.

An investigation into what caused the catastrophic implosion is still ongoing.

In 2013, Söhnlein founded a second ocean exploration company after leaving OceanGate - he called it Blue Marble Exploration.

The Independent reports a now-deleted post on the company’s website detailed a mission to the bottom of Dean’s Blue Hole - also known as the ‘Portal of Hell’ - in the Bahamas.

It’s one of the world’s deepest ocean sinkholes and is notorious for how dangerous it is. Unforeseen currents, extreme pressure, lack of light and remote location all contribute to the location’s challenges - it has claimed the lives of 200 people in recent years.

The deleted post initially invited people to join Blue Marble Exploration’s team on the dive - however, Söhnlein confirmed to The Independent this is no longer the case and the dive will be carried out by trained professionals only.

He told Reuters another expedition is one of the best ways he can think of to honour the people who died in last year’s horrific incident.
“Let’s figure out what went wrong, let’s learn lessons and let’s get down there again.

“If anything, what we’re feeling is an even stronger imperative to continue doing this kind of exploration work.”

He added the submersible used will be certified - unlike the one used by OceanGate last year.

OceanGate’s doomed submersible used a carbon fiber hull which is thought to have contributed to its implosion.

Despite this ill-fated mission, Söhnlein is confident his other company is safe - so safe in fact he thinks he can send people not only to the depths of the ocean but into the furthest reaches of space to Venus.

Writing in his Humans2Venus blog , he claimed: “We could embark on our Venusian journey TODAY ... and do it safely and cost-effectively.”

This is in contrast to the scientific understanding that Venus is utterly uninhabitable for humans, with temperatures reaching 464C and an atmosphere filled with sulphuric acid.

Söhnlein suggested that humans could live in floating cities about 50kms (30 miles) above the planet’s surface, where conditions are more inhabitable.

The Daily Star UK