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JIN DING / CHINA DAILY
China manned submersible Fendouzhe, which means “fighter” in Chinese, successfully completed a 10,909-meter dive into the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench on Tuesday.
On Friday, Fendouzhe it plunged back into the trench in the western Pacific Ocean, but this time it was accompanied by China’s deep-sea lander Canghai, which means “vast sea,” transmitting high-definition video of the submersible in real time.
While it is challenging to make a manned submersible that can safely submerge in the deepest part of the ocean, where the water pressure is 1,100 times greater than atmospheric pressure, it is even more difficult to stream live video from such depths.
In water, electromagnetic waves meet very high resistance and can hardly travel through seawater that is 100 meters deep, so ships and submarines often use sonar (navigation and sound range) to detect and determine the distance and direction of underwater objects.
Chinese engineers solved the video transmission problem in a creative way by connecting a fiber optic cable at the end of Canghai to transmit the data. Imagine tying a rope to something that is 11,000 feet under water.
The fiber optic cable must be strong enough to withstand the harsh water conditions in the deep sea. As a precaution, the engineers used a backup at about 3,000 meters due to the chaotic currents there.
Thanks to the cable, viewers were able to watch a live broadcast of Fendouzhe. It was the efforts of hundreds of people that made it possible. In turn, the successful live broadcast showed that China’s technologies in various sectors lead the world.
And it is the dedication of Chinese scientists and engineers that has secured that leadership position. The nation expects more technological progress.
