China’s Jiaolong Dives Over 6.000 Meters

China’s manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong, with three divers inside, has set a new record by diving over 6,000 meters below the sea in the Mariana Trench on Friday, ChinaDaily reports.

This was the first of a series of planned six dives. The dive began at 9 am (local time) on Friday.

The 6,055 meters depth was reached after 3 hours of diving without any problems occurring, except the malfunction of the submersible’s No 1 communication system, but the No 2 guarantees the connection between the vessel and it’s mother ship, Xiangyanghong 09.

The Jiaolong threw ballast iron and began to rise at 12:44 pm local time.

Depending on the weather and the sea conditions, the submersible will conduct five more dives, lasting from 8 to 12 hours and each time heading to a greater depth. The fifth and sixth dives are supposed to reach the depth of 7,000 meters.

During the dives, which will be conducted in daylight for safety reasons, the divers will test various functions and performances of the submersible at great depths.

[mappress]
Subsea World News Staff , June 15, 2012