"In mountain climbing ... you are completely subjected to the weather and you feel freer because you're surrounded by a lot of open space. You feel the biting cold and you feel the wind," he said.
But deep-sea diving, by contrast, is a "far more technical mission."
While speaking at TED, Vescovo said the experience was "kind of like the Space X of ocean exploration, but I pilot my own vehicles."
"Elon [Musk], if you're listening," he said, "I'll give you a ride in mine if you give me a ride in yours."
Read more from TED 2019:
MIT researchers discovered a way to move objects as heavy as a great white shark with your bare hands. Take a look.
The woman who blew open the Cambridge Analytica scandal says Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are 'handmaidens to authoritarianism'
Octopus skin could be artificially replicated to make camouflage clothing and color-changing makeup