The bottom of the sea of 10,000 meters is wonderful

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At 8:12 on November 10, 2020, the Chinese "Strivers" manned submersible successfully sat at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, with a depth of 10,909 meters, creating a new record for Manned Diving in China.

After sitting at the bottom, the "Strivers" will carry out submarine operations, including sampling, cruises and other links on the seabed, lasting 6 hours, which is also the longest operation time designed by the "Strivers" on the seabed.

In the face of the huge pressure brought by the unprecedented depth, how should the "Strivers" "resist the pressure"? What does the Strivers go through from departure to home? How did our "deep blue dream" come about step by step?

Why dive deeper and deeper

At 7:42 Beijing time on November 10, the stealth depth of the "Strivers" once again successfully exceeded 10,000 meters! The headquarters of the "Strivers" sea test site then erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

At 8:12 Beijing time, the Chinese "Strivers" manned submersible successfully sat at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, with a depth of 10,909 meters!

What is the concept of 10909 meters? Let's look at a set of data:

10 meters, which is the depth that ordinary people can dive to without carrying any diving equipment;

113 meters, which is a record for naked diving set by a French diver;

332 meters, which is the deepest record for a person to dive to after using an underwater respirator;

10,898.5 meters, which is the depth reached by Cameron's "Deep Sea Challenger" in 2012.

At 10,000 meters from the Mariana Trench where the Strivers dived, the water pressure exceeded 110 megapascals, equivalent to 2,000 African elephants stepping on a person's back.

The Mariana Trench is known as the "Fourth Pole of the Earth", and its deepest point is close to 11,000 meters, which is the altitude of Mount Xiyuehua on top of Mount Everest...

Eight years ago, Canadian director Cameron successfully challenged the Mariana Trench aboard the Deep Sea Challenger. The key to the compression resistance lies in its strong and pressure-resistant spherical manned cabin.

Compared with other submersibles in the world, the deep-sea challenger capsule is about the same thickness, but it is less than half their size, which can be described as "thick skin and small filling", which is why Cameron can reach 10,000 meters.

But the Deep Sea Challenger capsule is too small for even five or six-year-olds to stand up straight and carry more scientists and research equipment. In order to be able to stay in it for 6 hours in a row, Cameron even had to practice yoga specifically.

In order to ensure the passenger capacity, the manned cabin should be large enough; and in order to reduce the burden on the submersible, the ball cabin should not be too heavy. In order to withstand the pressure of 10,000 meters of sea, it is crucial to make a large, light and sturdy manned capsule.

Domestic new titanium alloy materials are the key to solving this problem.

After years of continuous optimization and thousands of tests, a new titanium alloy independently developed by China has finally come out. High strength and toughness, it can accommodate up to 3 passengers to safely conduct scientific research tasks on the seabed. Now, the "Strivers" can finally withstand the huge pressure on the seabed and safely carry people to the 10,000-meter deep sea.

Why dive deeper and deeper?

Ye Cong, chief designer of the "Strivers" and commander-in-chief of the 10,000-meter sea test, introduced that the ocean area accounts for 71% of the earth's area, seawater accounts for 97% of the total water resources of the earth, and the seabed is rich in resources, and mineral and energy reserves exceed land. And we know more about space and the moon than about the deep ocean. Exploring the ocean, protecting the ocean, strategizing the ocean, and building a marine power are all closely related to deep diving, and high-tech deep diving equipment is needed to draw a deep-sea "treasure map".

The 10,000-meter abyss can be described as the "no man's land" of scientific research, and the all-sea deep manned submersible is a scientific research equipment of "no one has me". The deep-sea technology represented by the abyss entry technology and the abyss exploration technology represents the top level of the current international deep-sea engineering technology field. Looking around the world, there are only a few deep submersibles that have visited the 10,000-meter abyss.

Previously, people thought that below 6,000 meters above the sea surface, due to the ultra-high hydrostatic pressure, lack of sunlight and food supply, coupled with special seabed terrain, violent tectonic activities and other extreme environmental factors, it is a lifeless, isolated and lifeless world.

However, these perceptions are being upended as scientific investigations into the abyss are being launched. The scientific research of the abyss, represented by the abyss geological science and the abyss life science, represents the latest frontier of the current international deep-sea scientific research.

With the advancement of deep-sea survey technology, the world has carried out a number of large-scale abyss survey activities in recent years, discovering more new species in the abyss, and the biomass and vitality of the abyss are far beyond expectations.

What are the "little secrets" in the "Strivers"

At the headquarters of the "Strivers" sea test site, through the acoustic communication system carried on board, the voice of submariners was heard from the 10,000-meter deep sea.

"The bottom of the sea at 10,000 meters is wonderful. I hope that we can show you the 10,000-meter seabed through the picture of the 'strivers'. The submariner also revealed, "We are now sailing near the bottom to observe, there are many unknown sea cucumbers with relatively small volume on the seabed, and now specific observations are looking for more valuable organisms and observation mechanisms." ”

In the vast sea, if the "Strivers" are regarded as a means of transportation to the deep sea, what will the "Strivers" experience along the way from going out to returning safely after completing the mission? Put the Strivers into the sea, how many steps in total?

First of all, it is necessary to confirm the hydrological, meteorological and topographic information of the submerged sea, and then the "Strivers" must be oiled, oxygenated and charged.

The "Strivers" were transferred from the "Exploration One" research vessel to the sea, and this process was called "deployment". Located on the rear deck of the mother ship, the placement system consists of a huge A-frame, towing winch and transport track, which can withstand the test of harsh sea conditions and waves, and is also the place to support the daily storage, maintenance and overhaul of the Strivers.

Three submariners will enter the interior before the submersible is launched, and the power check will be carried out in the cabin to ensure that the equipment is operating properly. After that, the two hydraulic arms of The A frame lift, move, lower and finally deploy the submersible to the surface of the sea.

"On the back deck of the ship, the number of people operating in hard hats is very limited. Although the whole team has fewer people, it is more efficient to analyze and solve problems at sea. Ye Cong said that in this 10,000-meter sea test, the "Strivers" manned submersible operation team gradually compressed, leaving more positions for scientists.

According to CCTV News, compared with the sea surface temperature of 30 degrees Celsius when it was deployed, the temperature in the cabin of the "Strivers" sitting in the Mariana Trench at the bottom was only about 20 degrees Celsius; in addition, as the humidity increased, the human body would feel colder. In particular, the main driver Zhang Wei, his feet are particularly close to the shell of the ball cabin, where the temperature is only 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, so his physical feeling will be more intense. Therefore, cold-proof warming clothes, including towels and socks, are placed in the bags they carry with them, and they need to increase their clothes at any time according to their personal physical feelings, and keep the soles of their feet warm.

After being deployed, the "Strivers" with the hatch closed formed a sealed sphere, completely isolating the sea and air outside.

When the mother ship wants to contact the Strivers, it needs to use radio communication VHF communication systems. Once the communication is established, it is time to wait for the command center on the mother ship to issue orders.

After receiving the dive order, the frogman squad will help the submersible to decouple, and the submersible will begin to dive. After approaching the seabed, the submersible will throw away the first set of ballast iron to achieve a balanced state of suspension in the water, and carry out submarine operations according to the operation plan. After completing the operation, the submersible will throw off the second set of ballast iron, so that the buoyancy of the submersible is greater than its own gravity, and it will float back to the sea.

After a few hours of long return, the "Strivers" will surface to the sea, the eye-catching orange paint and loaded GPS signal transmitter will allow the mother ship to quickly find the "Strivers", "Strivers" only need to follow the previous deployment process to return to the same way, can safely return to the mother ship.

How the "Deep Blue Dream" came into reality step by step

"When we do manned diving, when we break a new depth record, we all understand that it is difficult, but it must be done." Yang Bo, a researcher at the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a submariner of the "Strivers", said in an interview, "In fact, 9,000 meters to 11,000 meters are unknown blanks for us. A series of these uncertainties, through our full preparation to resolve them, to solve them. ”

From 100 meters shallow sea to 10,000 meters deep sea, China's manned deep diving undertaking has broken through a number of core deep diving technologies in the past few decades. Now, let's look back at that history and feel the "deep blue dream" of generations of deep divers in China.

The 7103 lifeboat is China's first manned submersible, developed since 1971 and successfully in 1986. Although it could only dive 300 meters and had a speed of only four knots, it was also the most advanced rescue manned submersible of its time.

With the passage of time, the depth of China's exploration of the ocean has also changed, such as the 1986 "Hairen I" and the 1994 "Exploration", these deeper and deeper submersibles have accumulated experience in many fields such as underwater positioning, sonar detection, compressive materials and mechanical control.

In July 2010, China's first self-designed and integratedly developed manned submersible "Jiaolong" reached a diving depth of 3759 meters, and China became the fifth country in the world to master the 3500-meter large-depth manned deep diving technology after the United States, France, Russia and Japan. On June 27, 2012, the 7,000-meter manned submersible completed its ultimate challenge, eventually maintaining the record at 7,062 meters. The Jiaolong also has the world's most advanced hovering and automatic driving functions, which can resist the interference of the current and work steadily on the seabed.

Different from the "Jiaolong" that has been established for ten years and developed for ten years, China's second-generation manned submersible- "Deep Sea Warrior" has only taken eight years from the development of the project to the delivery of the sea trial, and the degree of localization is higher and the practicality is stronger.

"Strivers" is a major deep-sea scientific and technological equipment supported by the national 13th Five-Year Plan "Deep-sea Key Technologies and Equipment", which was established in 2016 and is mainly undertaken by the scientific research team based on the research and development strength of "Jiaolong" and "Deep-sea Warrior" manned submersibles. Yang Bo and his team have experienced missions from jiaolong, deep sea warrior to "strivers".

Incredibly, in 2016, the "Deep Sea Warrior" has not yet been launched, and the 10,000-meter manned submersible has begun to be developed synchronously.

China's "Strivers" manned submersible, which integrates the excellent lineage of the previous two generations of deep diving equipment, not only adopts a safe and stable, powerful energy system, but also has a more advanced control system and positioning system, as well as a more pressure-resistant manned ball cabin and buoyancy materials. In addition, the "Strivers", which dived into the 10,000-meter deep sea, will also carry out a series of scientific investigations and studies.

In addition to manned submersibles, China also has many unmanned submersibles such as "Haidou", "Haiyan" and "Haiyi". Among them, the "Haidou", with two modes of remote control and automatic operation, is China's first 10,000-meter scientific research submersible, which gives China the ability to independently study the 10,000-meter deep sea.

(Hebei Daily reporter Zhao Zezhong comprehensive CCTV news, Central Broadcasting Network, Xinhua Net, Science and Technology Daily and other media reports)

The pictures are all screenshots of the live broadcast of CCTV-13 "China's "Strivers" Manned Submersible 10,000-meter Sea Trial"

Source: Hebei Daily