OceanGate co-founder believes billionaires ‘can lead humans to Venus’

James Cameron likens Titan submersible tragedy to Titanic

The co-founder of the company behind last year’s doomed Titan submersible disaster believes “billionaires could lead humanity to Venus”.

Guillermo Söhnlein, 58, left OceanGate in 2013 and founded the Humans2Venus Foundation, which aims to make the Earth’s closest neighbour a second home for humanity.

He co-founded OceanGate in 2009 with his friend Stockton Rush, 61, who died in last year’s submersible disaster that claimed the lives of reported billionaires Hamish Harding, 58, and Shahzada Dawood, 48.

While the surface of Venus is too hot to sustain human life at 864 degrees Fahrenheit, Mr Söhnlein has suggested that this problem can be overcome by habiting the planet 30 miles above its surface, where conditions are similar to Earth.

It is not known how the entrepreneur, who is also currently planning a trip to one of the world’s deepest sinkholes, believes this habitation can be achieved.

In a blog post this week, he explained with the investment of billionaires, who OceanGate similarly attempted to recruit, humanity has the potential to become “a multi-planet species”.

The OceanGate co-founder then praised “space billionaires” Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson.

He wrote: “Each of these men founded innovative space companies that have helped (and continue to help) push humanity further into the cosmos.

“Since 2014 private investors around the world (including China) have poured billions of equity capital into thousands of space startups. These investors include wealthy individuals, institutional money managers, and large corporations, among others.

“Taken together, the private sector has proven to be a formidable force in spearheading–and financing–increasingly ambitious space efforts.

“With so much capital available throughout the world, it is not inconceivable that one or more leaders may emerge in the near future to embrace a vision of humans living and working in the Venusian atmosphere.”

As well as billionaires, Mr Söhnlein believes that an attempt to habit Venus, which has never been reached by humanity, could also be led by organisations from the public sector such as NASA.

He concluded: “Humanity seems to be on the verge of taking significant next steps toward becoming a multi-planet species, most specifically with current programs targeting the Moon and future plans for leveraging that experience into success on Mars.

“The atmosphere of Venus could provide a feasible complementary alternative destination.

“Someone will have to take a strong leadership role to get humanity to Venus. Fortunately, there are many prospective candidates, and one or more of them may emerge in the very near future.”

The OceanGate co-founder told The Independent that while he is continuing his work with submersibles, his upcoming trip to the Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas will not include any tourist passengers.

After leaving the now-suspended OceanGate, Mr Söhnlein founded another exploration company in 2013, Blue Marble Exploration, which is running the upcoming trip.

Last year’s OceanGate disaster saw a number of “citizen explorers” pay a reported $250,000 each to see the world’s most famous shipwreck, the Titanic, in person.

Mr Söhnlein stressed Blue Marble Exploration will use a classed submersible, which was not the case in OceanGate’s doomed mission last year that involved the “experimental” Titan.

He said this aspect of his exploration work did not change in light of last year’s disaster and it was always his plan to use a certified vessel.