Researchers plan manned 2018 expedition to Titanic

WOODS HOLE, Mass. (AP) Researchers are planning what they say is the first manned submersible expedition to the Titanic since 2005.

And a few lucky members of the public could go with them.

OceanGate Expeditions recently announced that the seven-week research mission will depart from Newfoundland, Canada, in May 2018. London-based tour operator Blue Marble is partnering with OceanGate to send nine travelers along on the journey at a cost of more than $100,000 per person.

Experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts are also taking part.

Everett, Washington-based OceanGate says the goal of the mission is to assess the condition of the wreck and document – but not collect – artifacts at the protected site.

The Woods Hole experts say they hope to generate a 3D photographic model of the wreck using modern subsea imaging technology.

The precise cost to travelers is $105,129 each, equivalent to the $4,350 a first-class passenger would have paid to sail on the Titanic’s fateful voyage in 1912, The Telegraph reports.

The doomed British luxury liner sank on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg on that voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, killing more than 1,500 people.