China’s unmanned submersible ‘Haidou-1’ reaches world’s deepest ocean point

China’s unmanned submersible ‘Haidou-1’ has dived to a depth of 10, 907 meters at the world’s deepest ocean point. Haidou-1 sets a new record for the country during which high-definition images of the geological environment and samples from the deep sea were collected.

The unmanned submersible set the record by submerging under the Pacific Ocean surface of the Mariana Trench which is the deepest area in the world.

The expedition team was from the Shenyang Institute of Automation and the Chinese Academic Sciences. The members of the team had left for the expedition on April 23, 2020, and returned to the northeast China Province of Liaoning on June 8, 2020.

China’s unmanned submersible Haidou-1 has recreated the country's deep-sea diving record by submerging 10,907 meters under water in the Pacific Ocean’s #MarianaTrench. The team left on April 23 and returned to the NE Chinese province of Liaoning on Monday. pic.twitter.com/gCMYGOHyGl

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) June 9, 2020

Key Highlights:

• The expedition team mentioned that the vehicle over 10,000 meters four times at the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench during the trip.
• During the diving operation, the researchers also tested machine hand operation, high-precision depth detection, high definition video transmission, and acoustic detection and positioning.
• The submersible ‘Haidou-1’ collected the samples from the deep sea and captured the high definition images of the geological environment.

Background:

China in the last few years has stepped up its efforts to develop deep-sea technology in order to explore the mining of rich natural resources from the sea bed. In 2011, China had entered into the deal with the International Seabed Authority for a polymetallic sulfide exploration area which is of 10,000 kms in the Indian Ocean, for 15 years.