Deep Ocean Research Activity In China

In 1993 China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association (COMRA) become the fifth registered pioneer investor. Our country has the rights for surveying and trial exploitation of ocean multi-metallic nodules in this area for later decade. In-order to exploit and survey the seabed mineral resources in the ocean, we must have reliable equipment. SJTU (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) and DOE (USA) had developed a set of 6,000 m deep tow and survey system in 1995. Regularly the coaxial cable with diameter of 0.681" is used for deep tow system because of the higher reliability of the cable while reel in and reel out from the winch. The maximum depth of towing vehicle is determined to be 6,000 m. The cable length has to be in the range of 8,000 m to 10,000 m, but the maximum distance of transmission of video information via normal coaxial cable is only about 6,500 m to 7,000 m. To solve this problem SJTU designed the video compression digital system. The first autonomous untethered unmanned vehicle (AUV), Explorer-l, wag developed by the co-operation of ShenYang AutomAtion Research Institute and SJTU for 4 years. The second AUV, CR-01, was developed by the scientific expert of both China and Russia. It fulfilled the deep-sea experiment with the depth of 5,200 m in August 1995 in Pacific Ocean. The operating depth of this vehicle reached 6,000 m. This vehicle also took part in the survey task of manganese nodules in special zone of Pacific Ocean. China also starts to develop the 3,000 m ROV and 6,000 m manned submersible. In order to exploit and survey the seabed mineral resources in the ocean, we must have reliable equipment. SJTU and DOE (USA) had developed a set of 6,000 m deep tow and survey system in 1995.