China makes Successful Dive in Mariana Trench

Jialong, the Chinese manned submersible has brought it’s three occupants back from a dive to a depth of over 19,000 feet in the Mariana Trench setting China’s deep-sea diving record. The dive was the first of six scheduled dives and took three hours to reach the deepest depth of the dive. On board the submersible were it’s three occupants, Cui Weicheng, Yang Bo and Ye Cong. Once the submersible reached the bottom and the ascent was to begin, Jialong dropped it’s iron ballast and began the ascent, which took an hour and forty-five minutes. Each of the six dives which last from eight to twelve hours are designed to test various functions and performances of the submersible at depth. The dives are made during daylight hours and are conducted under specific conditions assuring dives are made in less than four class winds and less than three class waves. The deep-sea dive push comes as China plans to launch a spacecraft to conduct its first manned space docking later this month, part of its efforts to establish a permanent space station by 2020. A Chinese expert told said that the Jiaolong could be used for scientific research, to collect samples of undersea life and study geological structures. "It's not a simply constructed submersible," said Jian Zhimin, director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology at Shanghai's Tongji University. "If it is successful in the 7,000-meter challenge, then it can be turned over to scientists for use," he said. Since the Jiaolong's maximum design depth is 7,000 meters a dive to that level will test the limits of China's technology, he added. "It is the first dive the Jiaolong took after its successful dive to 5,188 meters last July and the attempt is to test the submersible's functionality and performance at the depth of over 5,000 meters after its technical improvement in the past year," said Cui, who is also deputy on-scene commander. "Much remains uncertain, especially for the first try. But we are well prepared. If everything goes well, we will go deeper," Cui said.