Posted on 09/05/2019 7:41:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While the United States rests on her 60-year-old laurels, China has mounted an aggressive and long-term assault on the deep ocean, or the region known as the Hadal Zone (areas deeper than 6,000 meters[19,685 ft]).
Our country’s efforts to explore these depths effectively ended in 1960 at the conclusion of Project Nekton. That was when the U.S. Navy’s Trieste I Bathyscaphe reached the deepest known part of the ocean, the Challenger Deep, with Lt. Don Walsh and Swiss explorer Jacques Piccard inside a tiny steel sphere.
China’s current efforts are being led by Professor Cui Weicheng of Shanghai Ocean University and more recently, the Rainbow Fish Ocean Technology Company. Their current plan is to deploy 11 km (6.8 mi)-capable submersibles in 2020 to explore the deepest sections of the Marianas Trench. According to the South China Morning Post, “Beijing has listed deep-sea scientific exploration as one of the key projects in their five-year plan to 2020.
These programs involve the development of unmanned vehicles, benthic landers, gliders, and manned submersibles, as well as the infrastructure needed to maintain this technology. In addition, several research vessels have been constructed to support field operations, most of them purpose-built for specific systems.
How have the Chinese created such capabilities? Their projects were initially made possible by purchasing non-ITAR controlled underwater sonars and vehicles from British, Norwegian, and Canadian companies. As has been the case before, Chinese engineers used this technology as an educational tool, so that they could copy and improve on existing designs.
The next phase was the outright purchase of large engineering firms developing COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). To this end, Chinese companies have acquired UK-based Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) Ltd. and the Deep Flight Submarine Company.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
In all seriousness, I didn’t know there was a race.
There is fast fields of precious ores on the ocean floor. Just saying.
Sometimes I think space exploration is easier than deep ocean exploration. It may be easier to get to the deep ocean (just fall with a concrete block attached), but much harder to survive.
The problem is that the lack of pressure in deep space is the opposite of the increase in pressure at a depth of about 3 feet in water. But things get complicated when you go deeper. Much more complicated.
That is, once we figured out how to get stuff into space, it became easier to explore than the deep ocean.
Do you have a source for your assertion?
I saw it on a Smithsonian or National Geographic special years ago.
Did a quick search so don’t condemn the source. Look for yourself
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mining-for-gold-on-the-ocean-floor/
“Scientists have long known about remarkably pure concentrations of metals found near some of the hydrothermal vents, nicknamed “black smokers” because they resemble underwater chimneys.”
Can’t wait to see what kind of bizarre sea creatures live down there......
Read up on "black smokers" around deep ocean volcanic areas. Literally belching out clouds of metal sulfides.
Subs provided by Harbor Freight should lead the way.
I know about black smokers and sulfides but I don’t think those are in the really, REALLY deep water. There are a lot of them off the coast of Oregon. I’m pretty sure that at the depth of water they are discussing in this article there is not a lot of “stuff” that has been identified.
True. I think the assumption is that the deeper you are, the closer you are to sources of "hot stuff", and high mineral content.
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