Deep sea live stream showcases Chinese ingenuity

The Chinese manned submarine Fendouzhe, which means “striver” in Chinese, on Tuesday he successfully completed a 10,909-meter dive into the Challenger Deep chasm in the Mariana Trench.

On Fridays, Fendouzhe again he plunged into the trench in the western Pacific Ocean, but this time he was accompanied by the Chinese lander Canghai, which means “vast sea”, which broadcast high-definition video of the submarine in real time.

While it is difficult to make a manned submersible capable of diving safely into the deepest part of the ocean, where water pressure is 1,100 times greater than atmospheric pressure, it is even more difficult to stream video from such depths.

In water, electromagnetic waves encounter very high resistance and can hardly travel through seawater 100 meters deep, which is why ships and submarines usually use sonar (navigation and sound detection) to detect and determine distance and direction of underwater objects.

Chinese engineers have creatively solved the problem of video transmission by connecting a fiber optic cable to the Canghai end in order to transmit data. Imagine tying a rope to something 11,000 feet underwater.
The fiber optic cable must be strong enough to withstand the complicated water conditions in the deep sea. As a precaution, the engineers employed a backup at approximately 3,000 meters due to the chaotic currents present.

Thanks to the cable, viewers were able to watch a live stream of Fendouzhe. It was the efforts of hundreds of people that made this possible. In turn, the success of live streaming has shown that Chinese technologies in several sectors are leading the world.

And it is the dedication of Chinese scientists and engineers that has secured that leadership position. The nation looks forward to further technological advances.