Fendouzhe deep-sea manned submersible
Fendouzhe, or Striver, China's deep-sea manned submersible, dove 10,909 meters to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean on Nov 10, 2020.
It completed and livestreamed the world's first joint undersea photography mission with a lander on Nov 13.
Three days later, the submersible dove to the bottom again and recaptured three tools placed there previously.
With a total investment of 767 million yuan ($118.81 million), the deep-sea manned submersible was a major technological triumph of China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). Nearly a thousand researchers from China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited, the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, universities and enterprises contributed to the project.
A design sketch of the Fendouzhe, China's deepsea manned submersible [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
