CCTV News: "Jiaolong" is a 7,000-meter-level manned submersible independently developed by my country, with a total of more than 300 dives. As a "national weapon", the investigation scope of the "Jiaolong" has covered the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. In order to ensure intensive operational needs, the Jiaolong has ushered in upgrades and transformation since November last year. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources that at present, the "Jiaolong" has completed the upgrade and replacement of key components and is conducting pool tests.

What has the power of the "Jiaolong" improved after the upgrade and transformation?

The National Deep-Sea Base located in Qingdao Blue Valley is vividly known as the "4S Store" of Deep-Sea Technology Equipment. This is the base for daily maintenance of various submersibles such as "Jiaolong". After this upgrade and transformation, how has the power of the "Jiaolong" been improved? Let’s see the reporter’s visit to the National Deep Sea Base.

When approaching the "Jiaolong", everyone will definitely be attracted by the black propulsion device at its tail. The thruster equipped with "Jiaolong" after the upgrade has four blades, and the previous thruster's blades were three. Behind this change is the adjustment of the propulsion system structure of the Jiaolong, which increases the power through structural adjustments. The Jiaolong speed has increased from 2.5 nautical miles per hour to more than 3 nautical miles, and has achieved the domestic production of equipment.

A total of seven thrusters are set up on the "Jiaolong" manned submersible. During underwater operation, the submarine uses the operating lever in the cabin to control the power distribution of the seven thrusters, and through different rotation speeds, the submersible steering, upward, submersible diving and other operations are realized. As one of the key links of this upgrade and transformation, the upgrade of the propulsion system and battery pack has played an important role.

What are the upgrades to the lighting and observation system of the "Jiaolong"?

It is not only the power that is upgraded, but also the "eyes" of the deep sea navigation of the "Jiaolong". After the upgrade and replacement of key components, what improvements have been made in the lighting and observation system of the "Jiaolong"?

At the front end of the submersible, a row of cameras of different shapes attracted the attention of reporters. Among these devices are high-definition cameras for shooting underwater scenes and headlights for undersea lighting. In order to better carry out underwater resource and environmental detection work, the Jiaolong has also upgraded the lighting and observation systems. According to technicians, the existing camera equipment of Jiaolong has been upgraded to a wide-view angle and high-resolution ultra-high-definition video equipment. At the same time, the video transmission system of Jiaolong has been upgraded to a more efficient video transmission system, accumulating important video data for subsequent scientific investigation tasks.

The staff told reporters that the subsequent "Jiaolong" will add two new LED light arrays to the front end and three lighting lamps at the tail and bottom to improve the underwater detection range and the search ability of fine targets.

Repeated pool tests to verify what performances "Jiaolong" are performed?

After the upgrade and transformation of the Jiaolong, multiple pool tests were conducted. How were the pool tests conducted? What problems are mainly solved during the upgrade and transformation of the Jiaolong? Let’s follow the reporter to go to the “Jiaolong” submersible test workshop to take a look.

In the "Jiaolong" submersible test workshop of the National Deep Sea Base Management Center, the water depth of the pool at the reporter reached 8 meters. At present, the submarine is driving the Jiaolong to dive into the pool, conducting full-process tests on key equipment such as the modified and upgraded thrusters, lithium battery packs, etc. to verify the stability of the system. This is also the fourth pool test conducted after the upgrade and renovation of Jiaolong.

As the submarine issued an order, the "Jiaolong" transported from the hoisting equipment to the test pool began to slowly dive, and completed fixed-point navigation, diving, floating and other actions underwater. The reporter noticed that although the test site was stable and orderly, everyone looked very focused. The staff told the reporter that repeated pool tests were conducted to discover and solve the problems existing during the upgrade and transformation of the Jiaolong.

Not only the power distribution link needs to be run-in, the staff also test the upgraded buoyancy adjustment system, lithium battery pack and other equipment of the "Jiaolong" in turn, so as to achieve the best state of the system. After nearly three hours of experimentation, the "Jiaolong" surfaced.

What stage is the development of deep-sea equipment in my country?

The centralized upgrade of deep-sea equipment is to adapt to the ever-developing scientific research needs. So, what stage is my country's deep-sea equipment currently in? In what direction will it develop in the future?

Since my country fully launched deep-sea exploration in the 1990s, it has experienced a development stage from introduction, improvement to independent research and development and manufacturing in the field of deep-sea survey technology, forming deep-sea equipment with independent intellectual property rights represented by manned submersibles such as the "Jiaolong" and "Fendouzhe" and the "Dream" ocean drilling ship. At present, my country's deep-sea resource survey is changing towards high efficiency and high quality.

In the extreme environment of deep sea with high temperature, high pressure and hypoxia, it has rich biodiversity and contains a large amount of mineral resources. It is a cutting-edge field of human scientific research. As deep-sea exploration continues to deepen, deep-sea development technology represented by greening will become the focus of international competition.