Director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center: More than 800 manned deep dives marked the new coordinates of "China Depth"

(The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China · Voice) Director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center: More than 800 manned deep dives marked the new coordinates of "China Depth"

　　China News Agency, Beijing, October 21, title: Director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center: More than 800 manned deep dives marked the new coordinates of "China Depth"

　　China News Agency reporter Pang Wuji

　　Ten years ago, China's first manned submersible "Jiaolong" successfully broke through the depth of 7,000 meters in the Mariana Trench.

For the first time, the Chinese have opened the "door" to the deep-sea world.

Data map: "Jiaolong" manned submersible.

Image source: ICphoto

　　Today, "China Depth" has new coordinates.

The representative of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center, Gu Wu, said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency that in recent years, the "Deep Sea Warrior" with all its core components domestically produced, and China's self-developed deep sea heavy equipment " The Striver" has been put into application successively, and the coordinates of "China Depth" have been advanced to the 10,000-meter deep sea.

　　In the past ten years, Gu Wu revealed that the "Jiaolong", "Deep Sea Warrior" and "Striver" have dived more than 800 times in total. Submarine scientific research has entered the world's first echelon.

The big breakthrough after nearly 50 years of "absence"

　　Foreign countries began to develop manned submersibles in the 1950s.

According to Gu Wu, the most successful large-depth manned submersibles currently used include the American "Alvin", the French "Nautilus", and the Russian "Peace-1" and "Peace-2". And Japan's "Deep Sea 6500".

In the 1990s, China proposed to develop manned submersibles, but due to the limitation of national strength at that time, there was no research and development capability, and the demonstration took as long as 10 years.

It was not until 2002 that the "7000-meter manned submersible" (later named "Jiaolong") was officially approved.

Before that, China had been absent from the field of manned deep diving for nearly 50 years.

　　However, since the establishment of the "Jiaolong" project, after more than 20 years of leap-forward development, China has come from behind in the field of manned deep diving.

At present, China already has three large-depth manned submersibles, the "Jiaolong", the "Deep Sea Warrior" and the "Striver", realizing the genealogy of the construction and application of the deep-sea manned submersibles.

At the same time, it independently designed and built professional manned submersibles to support the mother ships "Deep Sea No. 1", "Exploration No. 1" and "Exploration No. 2".

　　Gu Wu said that in recent years, China's annual average number of dives has been at the forefront of the world.

Moreover, with the successive application of a series of manned submersibles, Chinese scientists have been able to go deep into the seabed of thousands of meters or even 10,000 meters and have made a large number of new discoveries. Subject.

"Deep Sea Warrior" manned submersible.

Photo by Luo Yunfei

What are the mysteries of the 10,000-meter deep sea?

　　From 7,000 meters deep to 10,000 meters deep, it took China 8 years.

Gu Wu said that the development of manned submersibles is very difficult, and the problem of structural pressure resistance must first be solved.

For example, the "Jiaolong" dived 7,000 meters, and the corresponding pressure was 7,000 tons, which is equivalent to 150 tanks (each about 45 tons) stacked on each square meter of the submersible body.

In order to ensure the safety of diving personnel and equipment, the manned spherical shell and other pressure-resistant shells need to withstand huge pressure without deformation. Therefore, extremely high requirements are placed on materials, structures and sealing technologies.

In addition, technical problems such as large-depth underwater acoustic communication and high-precision underwater positioning need to be solved, so that the submersible can communicate smoothly with the scientific research mother ship on the sea and have accurate positioning.

　　What is the significance of overcoming these problems and diving into the 10,000-meter-deep sea?

Gu Wu said that the deep sea (with a water depth of more than 1,000 meters) accounts for about 50% of the earth's surface area.

In the past, scientists thought that the place below 6,000 meters in the ocean was a lifeless world.

But as more and more abyss scientific investigations are carried out, people's cognition about the deep sea is being subverted.

　　Gu Wu said that scientists have found that there are a large number of new species in the 10,000-meter deep sea, and the organisms have high-density aggregation and high exclusiveness, and have important research value.

Moreover, the 10,000-meter deep ocean is the area closest to the deep earth, and its plate subduction and the accompanying material circulation and energy exchange process have always been the frontier and hotspot in the field of earth science.

Data map: "Striver" full-sea manned submersible.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Luo Yunfei

Is the selection of a submariner comparable to that of an astronaut?

　　Scientific research and deep diving are inseparable from submersibles with excellent skills and quality.

Some people say that the difficulty of selecting a submariner is comparable to that of an astronaut.

Gu Wu said that astronauts, like submariners, work in an extremely complex environment, so they have higher requirements for practitioners.

The submersible is in a normal pressure environment in the manned cabin, and there is no problem of weightlessness. However, the underwater manned cabin is a dark, low temperature, and humid claustrophobic environment. Under such conditions, continuous high-intensity work is not conducive to the submarine. The physical and psychological qualities of the members are tested to a certain extent. Therefore, the corresponding aspects will also be investigated during the selection.

　　In China, submariners are an emerging profession, with less than 40 employees nationwide.

Gu Wei revealed that taking the second batch of submersibles of the "Jiaolong" as an example, they must be selected through layers to become submersible trainees. After that, they will undergo two-year systematic training, including the basic theory of submersible systems, troubleshooting analysis, Submersible driving operation, psychological and physical training and other links.

After two years, he will become a trainee submariner after an assessment, and after one year, he will become a full-fledged submariner after an assessment, and then he has the qualification to pilot the "Jiaolong" independently.

A total of about three years before and after.

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