CCTV News reported that on December 5, the "Exploration One" research vessel returned to Sanya with the "Strivers" manned submersible. Wang Jian, chairman of BGI Group, Xu Xun, president of BGI Life Science Research Institute, Liu Shanshan, deputy general manager of Qingdao BGI Intelligent Manufacturing, and 17 other scientific and technological personnel from 7 units across the country participated in the "Strivers" diving for the first time, collecting a number of precious abyss water bodies, sediments, rocks and biological samples, providing valuable data and samples for the comparison of multidisciplinary research on different abyss special environments, geology and life.
During the voyage, the Strivers manned submersible dived 23 times, 6 of which exceeded 10,000 meters, and conducted scientific expeditions in the deepest area of the "Challenger Abyss" in the Mariana Trench. Eight people in this voyage dived into the depth of 10,000 meters for the first time, of which 67-year-old Huada Group Chairman Wang Jiancheng was the first scientist in China to complete an expedition to the south and North Poles of the earth, climb the world's highest peak Mount Everest, and dive to the deepest part of the world's sea to carry out a 10,000-meter scientific expedition, and is also the oldest person to achieve this record.
Wang Jian, chairman of BGI Group, said that diving into the 10,000-meter deep sea to see a new magical world is a very interesting thing, and he also hopes that the deep-sea samples brought back this time can help scientific research and research like the previous Everest samples.
It has been reported that many submarine operations at sea have been carried out, often facing the impact of harsh sea conditions. In the case of high winds and high waves from time to time, "Exploration One" must ensure the frequency of 5 days and 3 dives, and can only "fight guerrillas" at sea, analyze suitable diving points in detail, try to meet the conditions required for scientists to dive, and smoothly carry out submarine scientific research.
From the first 10,000-meter sea test conducted by the Strivers in November last year, until the end of the voyage, the Strivers completed a total of 21 10,000-meter dives. 27 scientists from 9 universities, research institutes and enterprises in China have reached the deepest part of the world's ocean through the "Strivers" manned submersible, and the number and number of 10,000-meter deep dives in China rank first in the world.
A total of more than 60 scientific research practitioners participated in the voyage
During this voyage, the participating scientists team jointly launched the "Mariana Consensus" initiative to establish a standardized platform system for the Abyss Expedition, realize the long-term preservation and sharing of the samples and data of the Abyss Expedition, and support the international cooperation in big science around the Abyss.
At the same time, the "Mariana Trench Environment and Ecology Research Project" was launched, and researchers at home and abroad were invited to focus on the scientific expedition of the Mariana Trench Abyss to work together to tackle major scientific issues such as the formation and evolution of deep-sea earth science systems, the origin of life and environmental adaptation, biodiversity and climate change.
Xu Xun, president of the BGI Life Sciences Research Institute, said that based on this plan, the Huada Conference will further digitize this biodiversity resource in the global abyss, further explain the scientific problems of the origin of life and the adaptation technology of extreme environment, and these genetic resources will also contribute to industrial application.
Related Stories:
1. CCTV News: The Strivers completed the regular scientific expedition application of the second segment of this year and returned to Sanya
https://content-static.cctvnews.cctv.com/snow-book/index.html?item_id=17669364408232605765&t=1638671672324&toc_style_id=feeds_default&share_to=wechat&track_id=0f892529-3a25-4a81-8ba1-d9545a17ec97
2. "CCTV Network": "Strivers" completed 21 10,000-meter dives! The number and number of 10,000-meter deep dives in China rank first in the world
https://news.cctv.com/2021/12/06/ARTIdwQlxUBuW1NVoAl5zXbK211206.shtml