Chinese Submersible Planning For Record Dive 69
An anonymous reader writes "You may have heard that China sent a manned research sub down to the ocean deep this summer, marking a personal depth record of 5,000 meters (next year it will aim for a world record of 7,000 meters). Here's a story about the sub based on an interview with its designer in Wuxi, China. It's got some interesting new details: the designer had never actually seen a submersible before he set out to build the deepest diving research sub in the world; all the stuff he's built before has ended up in warehouses because the Chinese government only funded technological development, not use."
Re:A little late ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A little late ... (Score:3, Informative)
The difference is that it's a bathyscaphe, not a submarine. A bathyscaphe is basically loaded down with weights to reach the bottom, then drops the weights to rise back up. It can't control its buoyancy by adjusting pressure tanks - it's simply straight down, straight up. So yeah, they're way too late to set any records for first people to go that deep but it's still something not done before.
Re:A little late ... (Score:4, Informative)
You should actually look up the Trieste and get some factual information.
It most certainly could navigate on its own, and did. Do you think the propulsion system built on it was there for looks? Like spoilers on a Toyota Camry or something? The Trieste was used to hunt for the USS Thresher submarine after it was lost ... do you think they just sunk to the bottom, looked around in the 10 square meters of ocean floor they could view, rose back to the surface, had someone drag them over a few meters and did it all over again ... with no station keeping to actually make sure they weren't drifting on the way down and actually looking at the same spot?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593) [wikipedia.org]
And to counter some of the other statements being made, the Trieste was not attached to a surface ship during its dive, only when it was taken off the deck of the surface ship and lowered into the water, and then again when it was picked up and put back on the surface ship. At all times while it was submerged Trieste was completely on its own power, life support and navigation. Should it have 'sunk', they would not be able to 'reel it in' as it wasn't connected.
From the link I pasted originally:
The Trieste consisted of a float chamber filled with gasoline for buoyancy, with a separate pressure sphere. This configuration (dubbed a bathyscaphe by the Piccards), allowed for a free dive, rather than the previous bathysphere designs in which a sphere was lowered to depth and raised from a ship by cable.
Sorry Chinese dudes, the record will always be held by a little Belgium built ship named Trieste, occupied by its designer and an American Navy officer. Unless they find a new deep spot in the ocean or an unexplored cave, both of which are highly unlikely.