On March 18, 2016, Nature published an article, analyzing the 13th five-year plan of China from the perspective of its research projects. It interviewed Prof. Cui Weicheng, director of SHOU Abyss Science and Technology Center in terms of the deep-sea technology. Cui said in the interview: “the coming five years will be a golden period for the deep-sea technology.” The full article is as below:
In 2012, ‘oceanauts’ aboard the research submersible Jiaolong descended more than 7,000 metres beneath the waves, marking China’s entry into an elite club of nations capable of reaching the hadal zone — the deepest part of the ocean, which begins at 6,000 metres below sea level. Over the next five years, Chinese scientists will build one crewed and one uncrewed submersible, according to a plan released by the science ministry in February, each of which can reach depths of 11,000 metres — the very bottom of the hadal zone. For deep-sea technology, this five years will be a golden period,” says Cui Weicheng of the Hadal Science and Technology Research Center at Shanghai Ocean University.
The uncrewed vessel will be similar to Nereus, the advanced US submersible that imploded in 2014 and will not be replaced. The crewed vessel will hold at least two people, more than the Deepsea Challenger, which took film director James Cameron on a solo dive to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench in 2012. The hadal zone is one of the most poorly studied habitats on Earth, and is home to mysterious tube worms, sea cucumbers and jellyfish. Researchers are also interested in its role in the carbon cycle, because the microbes there digest a surprising amount of organic matter. Chinese scientists hope to use both submersibles to explore the zone in more detail than ever before.
Independently of the latest five-year plan, Cui has also developed a 'movable laboratory' (W. Cui et al. Meth. Oceanogr. 10, 178–193; 2014) composed of three landers, a robotic submersible and a crewed vehicle.The robotic submersible and first lander were tested down to 4,000 metres last October. A mother ship that controls the robot and landers is due to be launched on 24 March, and the first scientific expedition is planned for August, in the New Britain Trench off Papua New Guinea. Together these projects “could help shorten the gap between Chinese ocean science and technology and the most advanced capabilities elsewhere, says Cui.