10,000 meters under the sea, wonderful! (Our 2020)

Source: People's Daily

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The past 2020 has been a very extraordinary year: under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the whole party, the whole army, and the people of all ethnic groups in the country have faced difficulties and overcome difficulties, made major achievements in epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, made great historic achievements in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and won decisive victories in the decisive battle against poverty. Behind these achievements is a down-to-earth and continuous struggle effort, and each of us is a witness, pioneer and builder of the new era.

Starting from today, this newspaper launched the "Our 2020" column, looking back at the footprints of struggle in 2020, showing the spirit of daring to dream, daring to chase dreams, being diligent in fulfilling dreams, realizing value and contributing to society in hard work, and decoding the power of China's miracle.

Dive, dive! Mariana Trench, 10,909 m!

At 5:30 p.m. Beijing time on November 10, 2020, the moment he stepped back on the deck of the mother ship, Zhang Wei, a senior engineer of the Underwater Engineering Research and Development Department of the 702 Institute of Chinese Shipbuilding, was poured with cold water – a traditional celebration ceremony for the manned deep diving team, congratulating the sea test team members on breaking their records. As the main driver of the "Strivers" manned submersible, Zhang Wei said: "I will never forget that pain in my life. ”

This is not only a new record for individuals, but also a new record for manned deep diving in China. 18 days later, the Strivers returned victoriously after completing the sea trials. In more than a month, it has dived 13 times, of which 8 have exceeded 10,000 meters, marking that China has reached the world's leading level in the field of large-depth manned deep diving.

The Mariana Trench, known as the "Fourth Pole of the Earth" – with high water pressure and complete darkness – is one of the harshest regions on Earth, with a maximum depth of about 11,000 meters, equivalent to the elevation of Mount Everest superimposed on Mount Hua.

"10,000 meters under the sea, wonderful!" Zhang Wei said that the first time to reach the 10,000-meter deep sea, huge rocks, steep cliffs, sea cucumbers with tentacles, strangely shaped hook shrimp, white sponges like flowers, and new butterfly-shaped species that even biologists are difficult to distinguish, the scene in front of you is shocking!

5000 meters, 7000 meters, 8000 meters depth diving every day, 9000 meters depth every other day diving, 10,000 meters depth every two days diving, the "Strivers" rhythm is very stable, many equipment maintain zero failure record. Liu Shuai, chief builder of the "Strivers" and senior engineer of the 702 Institute of Chinese Ships, introduced that this is mainly due to the fact that the submersible conducted an onshore joint blending pool test in early 2020, the former found and solved more than 40 problems, and the latter eliminated more than 20 types of problems.

But the pool test cannot simulate the real environment such as depth, and the sea test is not smooth.

During the voyage, the mother ship of "Exploration One" encountered two typhoons, multiple low air pressures, and the hanging array used for submarine communication was broken. As soon as they arrived in Mariana, the team members urgently repaired the hoisting array and immediately launched the first dive.

Biological grasping, in situ experiments, complete deployment and recycling... This series of scientific expeditions is inseparable from the sensitive manipulator, but in the extreme environment of low temperature and high pressure, the manipulator sometimes cannot open and close flexibly. The team "symptomatic treatment" in time, and in the next few sea trials, the manipulator successfully grabbed a large number of sediments, rocks and seabed biological samples, providing first-hand information for abyss scientific research.

The "Strivers" took up to 6 hours to dive into the seabed each time, and the operational efficiency was greatly improved, thanks to the submersible's "fast up and down" - diving and floating are about 3 hours. Zhang Wei said that the submersible dives without power through its own weight, but there is almost no feeling at the moment of sitting at the bottom.

How important is this feeling of "no feeling"?

If a "hard landing" is made, it will not only hit the brackets, sonar and lights at the bottom of the submersible, but will also cause damage to the seafloor environment, and the deposits stirred up will blur the narrow viewing window vision. Zhang Wei told reporters that through advanced material technology and precise control of speed, the "Strivers" successfully "soft landing", like a feather slowly and gently fell on the flat and soft sand.

Ye Cong, chief designer of the "Strivers" and deputy director of the 702 Institute of China Shipbuilding, introduced that this is the first all-sea deep manned submersible with independent intellectual property rights in China, bringing together more than 100 domestic units and nearly 1,000 scientific researchers for 5 years, and is the equipment with the largest number of manned submersibles in the world, the longest seabed operation time and the strongest operating capacity.

And the biggest challenge with the strongest equipment comes from high pressure. The pressure of the Mariana Trench is more than 1100 times the standard atmospheric pressure, which is equivalent to the weight of a small car in a place the size of a fingernail. The new high-strength, high-toughness titanium alloy independently developed by the scientific research team can resist the high-pressure impact of the deep sea; the "hemispherical welding" process ensures the reliable and safe weld of the manned chamber; the manned submersible must dive deeply, but also come up, a solid buoyancy material that meets the high strength and low density under the ultra-high pressure conditions of 10,000 meters deep sea, plus the optimization of loading and other technical means, to achieve the basic balance of buoyancy and gravity on the seabed...

"This 10,000-meter road, we have walked for 20 years!" Ye Cong said that the "Jiaolong" project established in 2002 realized from scratch, the "Deep Sea Warrior" that lasted 8 years of development realized from integrated innovation to independent innovation, and the "Strivers" with a localization rate of more than 96.5% of core components realized from catching up to leading, helping scientists to explore the unknown deep sea and reveal the ultimate mystery of the human homeland. ”