Setting out from St John’s, Newfoundland, the 30-member crew will spend more than 20 days at sea, hovering above the site where the fabled ship went down almost 100 years ago.

Unlike previous trips to the wreck for the sake of adventure or exploration, this voyage is being carried out for scientific purposes.

Instead of stripping the wreckage, the trip will include archeologists who will carefully document and map the site for the first time as a step toward creating a long-term archaeological management plan for it.

American company RMS Titanic, sponsor of the voyage, said the expedition would use sonar technology and high-resolution optical video and imaging to document the wreck site, in what arguably will be the most technologically-advanced scientific expedition to Titanic ever mounted.

Christopher Davino, president of RMS Titanic, said the goal of the expedition is to “create the most detailed portrait of Titanic’s wreck site to date.”

Davino said the expedition team “will be using some of the most advanced technology available to create a portrait of the ship unlike any that has been created before — virtually raising Titanic and sealing her current state forever in the minds and hearts of humanity.”

The Titanic, an “unsinkable” luxury passenger ship, hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in April, 1912, killing 1,522 people.

After decades of searching, the wreckage of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 some four kilometers deep in the sea. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2010-08/23/c_13457869.htm