China will build 250-ton level deep-sea space

2012-07-12

According to news (reporter Guo Miao) of the Voice of China on July 3rd, Beijing, last June which just passed, is a fruitful month for China science and technology field, as the Shenzhou No. Nine Temple completed precision docking, the "Sea Dragon" manned submersible also successfully completed the last time of 7000-meter level sea trial on June 30th. It may be called "one can both clasp the moon in the Ninth Heaven and dive in five oceans to catch turtle".

After several generations of updates, Shenzhou series manned spacecraft have finally docked Tiangong. For "Sea Dragon" which just successfully challenged the depth of 7000 meters, when “the son and grandson of Sea Dragon” will be born? There are "Tiangong" meeting Shenzhou in the space, would there be a “Sea Dragon’s place” to meet the “Sea Dragon” in the future? With these questions, reporter had a special interview with the main designers and personnel of deep-sea space special project of the "Sea Dragon".

China has launched 4500-meter development project

There is a legend of "dragon has nine sons" in China since ancient times. The so-called "nine sons" is not referred to exactly nine sons of dragon, but to represent many sons. Then the Sea Dragon\'s first son will be like what? When will it be born? Deputy Director of Chinese Society of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, former chief engineer of China Shipbuilding Industry Cooperation Fang Shujia answered:

Fang Shujia: we have started 4500-meter development project, with deepest level of 7000 meters. In 6500-meter project of Japan, what they did is mutual supporting work on the same mother ship. In our work, we enter different areas and different depth with different detectors in depth of 7000 meters and 4500 meters respectively.

Research of manned spherical tank is expected to be completed in 2013

Fang Shujia said, China will soon launch key technology research work for 4500m manned submersible, and manned spherical tank is expected to be completed by the end of 2013. The whole submarine project is expected to complete around 2018. In fact, many people may not know that the Sea Dragon which dived to 7000 meters actually has "mixed blood". However, Fang Shujia said, the son of Sea Dragon which traveling at 4500m depth in the future is absolutely authentic Chinese Sea Dragon.

Fang Shujia: We 7000m pressure-proof object is a joint design with foreign enterprises. It is designed by us and processed abroad. Over the past few years, we CSIC Institute have researched and made object of titanium alloy, thus we must take into account the issue of producing it within China.

Deep-sea space station is on agenda, with food and accommodation conditions

People did not forget to build a palace for the Sea Dragon as thinking about the son of Sea Dragon. Deputy Director of the deep-sea space special office Ma Xiangneng said: Dragon Palace is actually a space station. In this future palace, one can not only live comfortably, but can also take shower and enjoy entertainment activities.

Ma Xiangneng: in 250-ton level, it is about 22m long, 7m wide, 8 meters high. If we compare future space station to a plane, then deep-sea station is like a carrier. Deep-sea space station is a dragon palace with terrestrial room moved to underwater. Daily life should be considered, even including shower. It is said to be living rooms and laboratories as well. It is a bit like small house where all features were taken into account in a confined space as much as possible.

Realizing the docking of submersibles and deep space station

Space station is core technology of the space field. In the same way, deep-sea space station also represents the frontier of research about sea. Ma Xiangneng said, the docking scene of Shenzhou No.9 and Tianggong No.1 is also a long-term goal for submersibles and space station in the future:

Ma Xiangneng: the carrier of our deep space station is a bit like Tianggong No.1; Sea Dragon is like Shenzhou No.9. There are one main body and two auxiliary parts. The main body is space station and the two auxiliary parts are supply ships. How can the people on submersible enter the space station? There must be an underwater vehicle to transport supplies from the mother ship to the space station. This certainly needs a docking function and should be realized in the future. But in the design of Sea Dragon, the docking feature was not necessarily taken into account. In the future, maybe other submersibles instead of Sea Dragon might achieve this kind of docking. I\'m looking forward. I hope this can be achieved 20-30 years before my retirement. This may take several generations of work.

U.S.A and Russia are still quite far ahead of us

In four dimensions of land, sea, space and sky, the ocean is a treasure-house of resources which has not been sufficiently developed yet. Ma Xiangneng said, although we have made great progress in deep-sea space station, there is still a long distance ahead to catch up.

Ma Xiangneng: the United States and Russia had space stations long time ago, which were built just for military use as top objective at that time. We just started to build our own space station after they had made development in the field. We have only worked on this for 10-15 years. The operation functions in the U.S.A and Russia are quite strong. We are still trying hard to catch up with them.

Source from : www.cnss.com.cn

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