At 8:12 on November 10th, the "Fourth Pole of the Earth"-Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific, the manned deep dive "Struggler" successfully sat in the "Challenger Abyss" with a depth of 10,909 meters, setting a record for manned in China Dive a new depth record.
Just over 10 days ago, the Struggle broke the 10,000-meter (10058) meter mark in one fell swoop in the same sea area.
This continuous achievement marks the success of China's 10,000-meter-class manned submersible "Struggle" sea trial, which means that the Chinese can freely reach any depth in the ocean and carry out scientific investigations with their own submersible, and have obtained Chinese deep-sea equipment. A major breakthrough in deep-sea technology and deep-sea technology has realized the coveted entry of Chinese scientists into the oceanic scientific expedition.
It is worth noting that the 10,000-meter-class manned submersible "Struggle" is the first new "big power weapon" that has entered the public eye after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and has been tested in actual combat. The perfect performance demonstrates China's growing independent innovation capabilities and new achievements in scientific and technological self-reliance.
Manned straight down the 10,000-meter abyss and won the first battle
When it comes to sea trials of manned submersibles, the first thing many people think of is the "Jiaolong".
Indeed, as the superstar of China’s oceanic scientific expeditions, the "Jiaolong" went from the 1,000-meter sea trial to the 3000-meter, 5000-meter, and 7000-meter sea trials, which lasted about 3 years. During this period, each time it went to sea to accept new depths. The test is a major news event of China Deep Blue Technology, which has attracted the attention of the public.
People are undoubtedly paying more attention to the news of the first sea trial of the 10,000-meter deep submersible "Struggle", which is "full sea depth", and people are paying more attention to the previous experience of observing the "Jiaolong" sea trial. In contrast, people have a deeper understanding of the performance of the Struggle in this sea trial.
The "Struggle" was "one step in place" in its first sea trial, directly challenging the 10,000 meters and succeeding in one fell swoop.
"Jiaolong" is positioned as a 7000-meter-class manned submersible, but its sea trial has undergone a gradual process, which is roughly divided into 4 depth stages to complete, and at each depth sea trial stage, it has also passed many times. Diving to achieve the goal of this stage, such a step by step exploration, and finally successfully challenged the designed dive depth of 7000 meters.
The "Fighter" sea trial is completely different. The "first battle" means "final battle" and the end of the battle. It directly challenges the designed depth of 10,000 meters.
Judging from the information obtained so far, the first dive of the Struggler in its first sea trial may be aimed at a 10,000-meter target.
This shows that the "Struggle" is so proud of the sea trial and is fully committed to the successful completion of the mission.
As of 23:00 on the 11th, the performance of continuously breaking through 10,000 meters and approaching the depth of 11,000 meters proves that the Struggle is indeed extraordinary.
"Struggle" is more efficient in diving and recovery.
According to reports, the Struggle began to dive at 4:50 on the 10th and broke through the 10,000-meter mark at 7:42, which took 2 hours and 52 minutes.
At 5:29 on June 27, 2012, the "Jiaolong" began to dive and reached about 7062 meters at 11:47 that day, which took 6 hours and 18 minutes.
From this, it can be found that in terms of diving speed, the Struggle is much faster than the Jiaolong.
In fact, the same applies to both the speed of floating and recovery.
The reason should be that the "Struggle" has applied the power dive and power ascent modes, which is obviously much faster than the "Jiaolong" unpowered dive and unpowered ascent adjusted by the pressure iron.
Power diving and recovery greatly improve efficiency and help to win more precious time for deep-sea scientific research operations. This is also deeply reflected in my country's second deep-sea manned submersible "Deep Sea Warrior".
The "Struggle" sea trial adopted the "dual ship support" model.
In each sea trial of the "Jiaolong", it is the mother ship "Xiangyanghong 09" that takes it out and provides protection. The combination of the two has gradually become the iconic symbol of China's manned deep diving.
During this expedition to the Mariana Trench, the Struggle has a double mother ship, namely the "Discovery 1" support ship and the "Discovery 2" support ship to provide support.
The former has an endurance of more than 10,000 nautical miles, and the latter is equipped with CTD winches and retractable devices, a 100-ton gantry submersible deployment and recovery system, 10 tons and 20-meter folding boom telescopic cranes and other domestic key equipment.
Break through the core technology of anti-overpressure
Self-reliance
Compared with the Jiaolong, the biggest difference between the Struggle and the Jiaolong is of course its deep diving ability, which has jumped from the 7,000-meter class to more than 3,000 meters to the 10,000-meter class.
The 7000-meter class means that the maximum diving depth and operating depth of the "Jiaolong" can reach about 7000 meters, and it can enter 99.8% of the global ocean area.
The ten-thousand-meter level means that the "Striver" has a maximum dive depth and operating depth of about 10,000 meters, and can enter any depth of the global ocean including the remaining 0.2% of the ocean area, that is, achieve "full sea depth" entry.
The scientific community believes that the study of deep sea areas below 6000 meters is an inevitable requirement for exploring major scientific issues including the origin of life and the evolution of the earth, and entering the ocean abyss to conduct scientific research and obtain scientific research samples is to further advance relevant research and make original and original research. Important conditions and advantages for fundamental contributions.
As a major country committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has always paid attention to oceans, especially deep-sea research, in order to promote major scientific breakthroughs; it has been advancing "deep sea access", "deep sea exploration" and "deep sea development" for the benefit of understanding, using and protecting the ocean All mankind strives hard.
It can be said that the goal and long-cherished wish of Chinese scientists is to realize the "full sea depth" entry and carry out the "full sea depth" scientific research.
For the Struggler team, what difficulties does it mean to overcome from the 7000m class to the 10,000m class?
How did they do it?
As a deep-sea manned scientific research platform, the Struggle has achieved a systematic breakthrough in 10,000-meter-level deep diving technology, of which the most eye-catching is undoubtedly the manned ball cabin.
The difficulty of its development is to withstand the huge water pressure of 10,000-meter deep diving under the premise of keeping three people on board and controlling its own weight. In other words, it is necessary to ensure that the Struggle becomes a veritable 10,000-meter scientific research platform. , And not simply a carrier tool to achieve "full sea depth" entry.
After years of continuous optimization and thousands of tests, the research team finally developed a new type of titanium alloy material suitable for the requirements.
On this basis, the research and development team improved the welding method, changing from the traditional "melon flap welding" with many welds and long construction period to the "hemispherical welding" with fewer welds and high reliability.
It can be said that the manned ball cabin is the number one "heritor" of the "Struggle" to withstand the huge pressure of 10,000 meters of the seabed and to succeed in sea trials.
The compression-resistant lithium battery is another core equipment of the Struggle.
According to reports, the power source of the Struggle is a lithium battery, and it uses a special lithium battery that can resist the deep sea super pressure to prevent structural deformation and short-circuit accidents, and has good heat dissipation performance.
This not only enables the "Striver" to obtain more adequate energy guarantee for its mobility, but also gains longer operating hours for the seabed scientific research.
Fifty years of manned deep diving
Trials and hardships
The "Fighter" made China's "All-Sea-Deep" scientific research dream come true.
Today, we are immersed in the joy of victory, looking back at the extraordinary journey that China has taken through manned deep dives, we can't help but feel filled with emotion.
China's manned deep dive dream set sail in the 1970s.
In 1971, the "Deep Submersible Lifeboat Development Working Group, or "7103 Development Working Group" was established. In 1976, the design of the deep submersible lifeboat was completed. Ten years later, China's first deep submersible lifeboat completed the test, filling the gap in China's deep submergence technology. After that, the scientific research achievement won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1992, many well-known scholars and experts from the Chinese offshore equipment research unit began to demonstrate the feasibility of developing China's manned submersible. In 2002, the deep-sea manned submersible The development was listed as a major project of the National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program), and the self-design and independent integrated development of the "Jiaolong" manned deep submersible vehicle started. It took 10 years to complete the development and sea trials. The development team was established. The safety design technology system of a 7000-meter-level manned submersible has been overcome, and the key technologies of precise control, precise positioning and fine operation in the complex deep sea environment have been overcome. Its hovering operation function is the first of its kind in the world for similar submersibles; it has broken through the complex underwater acoustic channel Under the conditions of large-depth, long-distance, high-speed underwater acoustic communication technology, it can transmit images, data, text, and voice information; established China's manned submersible land test, sea test, submarine training, surface support and other deep diving Operation and testing technology system; breakthroughs in the design and manufacturing technology of super large deep-submerged heavy parts, and promoted the development of the deep-sea equipment industry. At the 2017 National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the "Jiaolong" manned submersible won the National Science and Technology Progress Award First prize.
After the success of "Jiaolong", the relevant parties did not directly start the development of the 10,000-meter-class deep submersible. Instead, they established a project in 2009 to develop the 4500-meter-class manned submersible "Deep Sea Warrior". Breakthrough in the core components including the human ball cabin, achieve technological self-reliance and self-reliance, and then build a "bridge" to the 10,000-meter manned submersible.
Hu Zhen, who served as the deputy chief designer of "Jiaolong", served as chief designer of "Deep Sea Warrior", and "Jiaolong" chief designer and chief submarine Ye Cong, served as deputy chief designer.
In September and October 2017, the "Deep Sea Warrior" completed all maritime test tasks in the South China Sea, achieving a historic leap from integrated innovation to independent innovation in my country's deep-sea equipment.
Just after the development of the "Deep Sea Warrior" achieved key technological breakthroughs, in March 2016, Yan Kai, director of the State Key Laboratory of Deep Sea Manned Equipment, revealed to the outside world that the development of the 10,000-meter manned submersible was launched that year and will It will be completed during the "Three-Five" period.
Ye Cong, one of the main leaders of the "Jiaolong" and "Deep Sea Warrior", served as the chief designer of the submersible.
In the first half of this year, the 10,000-meter manned submersible entered the final test stage before going to sea and was named the "Struggle" based on feedback from the online naming activity.
Recently, under the escort of two mother ships, the Struggle successfully sat on the bottom of the western Pacific Ocean, the deepest part of the earth, and declared the Chinese people's "full sea depth" scientific expedition to a depth of nearly 11,000 meters.