Race to the Deep

By Rebecca Morelle

 

1 In a shipyard a few hours south of Shanghai music is playing,Chinese lions are dancing and giant balloons are whipping about in the wind.

 

2 A huge crowd has gathered to watch China’s new scientific researchship enter the water for the first time. And after the obligatory bottle ofchampagne is smashed, the tethers are cut and the 100m-long vessel rolls intothe water.

 

3 This ship, equipped with on-board labs and the latest scientifickit, will eventually explore the world’s oceans.

 

4 But it is also going to help China plunge beneath the waves: itwill serve as a launch-pad for submarines that can dive to the deepest parts ofthe ocean.

 

5 “Humans know much less about the deep oceans than we know aboutthe surface of the Moon and Mars. That’s why I want to develop the facility forocean scientists to reach the deep seas,” says Prof. Cui Weicheng.

 

6 He is the dean of deep sea science at Shanghai Ocean Universitybut he has also set up a private company called Rainbow Fish, which built thenew research ship and is busy developing submersibles.

 

7 One of its unmanned subs reached a depth of 4,000m (13,000ft) inits most recent trial.

 

8 But Rainbow Fish’s ultimate goal is manned exploration and itplans to take humans to the very bottom of the ocean — the Mariana Trench, inthe Pacific, at a depth of nearly 11,000m (36,000ft).

 

9 Cui shows me around a life-size model of the submarine that hehopes will make the dive in 2019. It’s bright red, about 10m-long and has astreamlined design.

 

10 He explains that there is room inside for a crew of three, whowill be protected by a thick metal sphere.

 

11 “At the moment, we are in the design stage, so we are testingseveral extremely high-strength materials for it.”

 

12 It will have to withstand immense pressures from the crushingweight of water above. If there are any weaknesses the submarine will implode.

 

13 The deepest ocean is a place few people have ever experiencedfirst-hand.

 

14 The first dive to the Mariana Trench was carried out in 1960 byUS Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard. Their vessel,the Bathyscaphe Trieste, creaked and groaned as it made the descent, takingnearly five hours.

 

15 The only other manned expedition was carried out by Hollywooddirector James Cameron, who took a solo plunge in a bright green submarine in2012.

 

16 Rainbow Fish wants its sub to be next. The team insists itsventure isn’t about politics and that it is looking to collaborate withAmerican, Russian and European scientists. It is, though, a commercialoperation.

 

17 The company plans to charge people to use its research ship andsubmarines, and is targeting three groups, says managing director Dr. Wu Xin.

 

18 “The first is definitely the scientists who are interested instudying deep-sea science and technology. The second group is offshorecompanies and oil companies. The last one is tourists and adventurers [who]want to go down themselves to have a look at what’s going on there,” he says.

 

19 This kind of entrepreneurial approach may be a new model forscience in China. Deep-sea research is a difficult, high-risk activity — andmuch of the ocean remains unexplored. But Cui, who hopes to be the firstChinese person to reach the Mariana Trench, believes that China could be thenation to truly open up this final frontier.

 

 

奔向深海

丽贝卡·莫莱尔

 

1 位于上海以南几小时车程的一个船厂里，人们奏着音乐，舞起中国狮子，巨型气球在风中飘荡。

2 一大群人聚集在这里观看中国新科研船的首次下水。按照习俗行过将一瓶香槟在船首击碎的掷瓶礼，切断缆绳，这百米长的船就下水了。

3 这艘船配有船载实验室和最新的科研器具，最终将探索世界的海洋。

4 但它也将帮助中国投身于海浪之下的世界：它将作为发射台，让潜水艇潜入海底最深处。

5 “人类对深海的了解远不及对月球和火星表面的了解。这就是为什么我要建造这艘船，让海洋科学家进入深海，”崔维成教授说。

6 崔维成是上海海洋大学深渊科学技术研究中心主任，但他还成立了一家叫彩虹鱼的民营公司。正是这家公司造了这艘科研船，并且正忙于开发潜水器。

7 该公司建造的一艘无人驾驶潜水艇在最近一次试验中潜入了4,000米（13,000英里）的深海。

8 但彩虹鱼的终极目标是载人探索，计划把人送到最深的海底——太平洋的马里亚纳海沟，其深度接近11,000米（36,000英尺）。

9 崔带我参观了潜艇模型，其尺寸与他希望能在2019年下水的潜水艇相同。它是鲜红色的，约10米长，流线型设计。

10 他解释说，潜艇可容纳三名船员，有厚厚的金属球形面保护他们。

11 “目前，我们处在设计阶段，所以我们正在为它测试几种强度极高的材料。”

12 该潜艇必须能够承受来自其上方海水的千钧压力。如果有任何弱点，潜艇就会崩塌。

13 最深的海洋是个几乎没有人亲身体验过的地方。

14 1960年，美国海军上尉唐·沃尔什和瑞士工程师雅克·皮卡德首次潜入马里亚纳海沟。他们的“的里雅斯特”号深海潜艇下沉花了近5个小时，一路发出嘎吱嘎吱的呻吟。

15 唯一的另一次载人探险是由好莱坞导演詹姆斯·卡梅隆完成的，他单人驾驶一艘鲜绿色的潜艇于2012年潜入海底。

16 彩虹鱼公司希望它造的潜艇将会进行下一次海底探险。该公司团队坚持认为，它的冒险尝试无关政治，它正在寻求与美国、俄罗斯和欧洲的科学家合作。不过，公司采用商业化运作。

17 该公司执行董事吴昕博士说，公司计划对使用其科研船和潜艇的人收费，目标客户是三个群体。

18 “首先肯定是有兴趣研究深海科技的科学家们。第二个群体是海洋企业和石油公司。最后是想亲自到海底看看是怎么回事的游客和冒险家，”他说。

19 这种商业化运作方式可能成为中国科学的新模式。深海研究是一个难度大风险高的活动，大部分海洋仍然未被探测过。但崔维成希望成为潜入马里亚纳海沟的第一个中国人，他认为中国可以成为真正揭开这最后疆域面纱的国家。