Beijing, China (Agencies): Chinese engineers have achieved a groundbreaking milestone by constructing the first cable-laying system capable of reaching the deepest known place in the ocean, the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. This remarkable feat was reported by Chinese media on Monday.
The new system, named Haiwei GD11000, was developed by Dalian Maritime University in collaboration with several domestic machinery and scientific technology companies. The system can deploy cables to a maximum depth of more than 11,000 meters (36,089 feet), equivalent to the depth of the Challenger Deep. This capability surpasses the previous record held by the Italian company Prysmian, which laid cables at a depth of 2,150 meters (7,053 feet) in July of this year.
Li Wenhua, the chief scientist on the project, highlighted that the Haiwei GD11000 could conduct marine scientific research “at the maximum depth of all the oceans in the world.” The system supports a safe working load of over 15 tonnes and can operate at a speed of 393.7 feet per minute. The Haiwei GD11000 has already successfully conducted two operations at depths of over four kilometers in the South China Sea, demonstrating its capabilities.
This development marks a significant advancement in marine technology and opens new possibilities for deep-sea exploration and research. The ability to lay cables at such depths is expected to have a profound impact on various scientific and commercial endeavors in the ocean’s most extreme environments.