James Cameron, others to explore real abyss

WASHINGTON -- Earth's lost frontier is about to be explored firsthand after more than half a century. It's a mission to the deepest part of the ocean, so deep that the pressure is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.

And it's being launched by the rich and famous.

In the next several days, James Cameron, director of "Titanic," "Avatar" and "The Abyss," plans to dive nearly seven miles down in a one-man submarine that he helped design.

The location is the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.

British businessman Richard Branson isn't far behind. And former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is funding another deepwater submarine project that's still on the drawing board.

Only two people -- Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Capt. Don Walsh -- have been to this underwater valley. And they spent only 20 minutes there in 1960.