Chinese Shipbuilder Mulls Deep-Sea Exploration
China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) is developing a manned submersible vehicle, which would be able to dive into Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth estimated to be around 10,900m below the surface, Xinhua news agency reported.
CSIC is almost done building a new cost-efficient manned submersible that could reach the majority of seabeds in the world. The development of deep-sea manned submersibles for rough seas would be one of CSIC's priorities in 2017.
The vessel, now under final assembly and testing phase, will be equipped with five observation windows and three seats.
If successful, the Chinese submersible would be the third to reach the bottom of Challenger Deep, also in the Mariana Trench. The depth record was first claimed by the Swiss-designed Italian-made Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960.
CSIC also led the development of Jiaolong, China's first manned deep-sea submersible that reached 7,062 meters deep in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean and allows research and exploration on 99.8 percent of the Earth's seafloors.
Meanwhile, a subsidiary of the CSIC is building a mothership, with a displacement of around 4,000 tonnes, for Jiaolong, expected to be put into service in March 2019.
