Japan is at the forefront of all countries in ocean exploration. For example, the unmanned deep-sea detector "Trench" once sneaked into the world's deepest Mariana Trench at 1995, with a diving depth of 109 1 1 m. Unfortunately, the "trench" finally disappeared off the coast of Japan.
The life course of "trench"
1986, Japan marine science and technology center began to develop the unmanned submarine "sea dog", 1990 completed the design and started manufacturing. The "trench" is 3 meters long and weighs 5.6 tons, and the cost is150,000 USD. This is a cable-controlled underwater robot equipped with a complicated camera, sonar and a pair of manipulators to collect seabed samples. It is the only probe in the world with a diving depth of 7000 meters.
On May 29th, 2003, Japanese scientists made use of the "trench" to conduct a submarine survey in the sea area about130km southeast of Kochi Prefecture, Japan. At that time, the diving depth of the "trench" was 4673 meters. As the No.4 typhoon of that year had begun to approach this sea area, the operator ended the investigation work ahead of schedule on 1: 29 that afternoon. However, when the "trench" was recovered, the staff found that for some reason, the "trench" could not return to the launch pad of the mother ship. 1 min later, the optical cable communication between the surface control ship and the "trench" and the power supply up to 3000 volts suddenly stopped, and the control ship had to take emergency measures.
At 4: 00 p.m. 17 p.m. that day, the winch of the control ship only recovered the launcher of the mother ship "Hai Gou", but the whereabouts of the "Hai Gou" were unknown because of the broken cable. Surprised, the operator used the azimuth detector to send signals to the "trench" three times in a row, but the control ship did not receive any signals from the "trench".
The radio transmitter on the "trench" can work continuously for 240 hours, while the transmission range of the radio transmitter is only about 4 kilometers. At that time, because the typhoon was close to the sea, the operator on the control ship speculated that the "trench" did not respond, probably because it was hit by waves and the distance from the control ship was more than 4 kilometers.
Since then, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center has made up its mind to find the "trench" and conducted a month-long search, but found nothing. It was not until June 30 of that year that the Japanese side announced the news of the disappearance of the "trench". After a meeting on July 4 of that year, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center thought that it was impossible to find the long-lost "trench" in a large area of sea even with sonar, so it announced the end of the search.
The disappearance of the trench made many scientists feel sad. For Japan's deep-sea scientific research, this loss is incalculable. Some scientists even compare "Trench" to "Colombia" in the aerospace industry. They think that this detector worth 50 million dollars is unique, and its disappearance is a great loss for scientific research.
Let's go to the deep sea.
The sea is calling human beings with its unique charm. The disappearance of the "trench" can't stop the deep-sea exploration of mankind, just as the accident of "Columbia" can't stop the space career of mankind.
Today, mankind faces three major problems: population, resources and environment. With the rapid development of national economy and the increasing population of the world, more and more natural resources are consumed by human beings, and the resources on land are decreasing day by day. In order to survive and develop, people must look for new material sources, and the ocean should be the first choice. Therefore, some scientists believe that the benefits brought by the deep sea to mankind are much more affordable than those of expensive space programs.
In addition, the discovery of new species of deep-sea creatures is of great significance for exploring the origin of life.
Technical problems in deep-sea exploration
In the short term, it is unrealistic for humans to dive into the deep sea by submersible. Because in the ocean, every time you dive 100 meters, you will increase 10 atmospheric pressure. At the bottom of 1000 meters, steel plates several millimeters thick are as fragile as eggshells in the atmosphere. In order to overcome these obstacles, most scientists engaged in deep-sea exploration have turned from manned submersible to robotic submersible. Now, the rope diving detector called "ROV" and the small computer-controlled battery-driven submersible (AUV) can be operated by any suitable vessel. Besides, they are relatively cheap and will not bring any danger to those who manipulate them.
Another possible solution is to develop a hull that can replace the deepest pressure in the ocean. The US Navy has successfully tested the use of new ceramic materials to make a buoyant submersible hull, which has the safety and reliability that people need when riding. At present, the data of this ceramic material has been decrypted, which will inevitably promote its commercial development.
For the buoyancy material of submersible, it is required not only to bear great pressure, but also to have extremely low water permeability to ensure its density unchanged, otherwise the robot will sink to the bottom of the sea. In high-pressure environment, the structure and technology of dynamic seal with high water pressure resistance is also a key technology of underwater robot. Any sealed electrical equipment, connecting cables and plug-ins on the robot must not leak at all, otherwise it will lead to the destruction of the whole component and even the whole electronic control system.
Because radio waves decay too fast in water, radio communication, radio navigation and radio positioning systems can't be used in water. The communication between the "trench" and the control ship is carried out through optical cables. The signal sent by the control ship and the real-time image signal shot by the "Trench" camera can be transmitted through the optical cable, and the operator can observe the image on the monitor and operate the "Trench" on the control ship.
If these technical problems can be completely solved, the last undeveloped "virgin land" on the seabed will be well developed and utilized. By then, some social problems facing mankind are also expected to be solved. We are looking forward to this day. (Laughter)
Explore the mysteries of life from the ocean
Qu Japan Ocean Science and Technology Center
The ocean is called the last unexplored territory on earth. It can not only provide inexhaustible energy for human beings, but also provide an excellent window for human beings to explore the mysteries of life. The Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, located at the seaside of Yokosuga, Japan, is the largest institution specializing in this scientific research activity.
From developing resources to learning more about the earth.
Established in 197 1, Japan marine science and technology center has experienced three development stages in the past 30 years. Japan established this scientific research institution in the early 1970s, with the aim of developing marine continental shelf resources. Through the implementation of the "Ocean Plan", we have developed technologies that can work in harsh conditions such as high water pressure, darkness and low temperature in the 300-meter deep sea, as well as diving technologies and diving systems. In 1980s, in order to carry out research on deep-sea and marine microorganisms, it developed a manned research ship "Deep Sea 2000", an experimental ship "Ocean" and a 3000m unmanned submersible "Dolphin 3K". In the 1990s, comprehensive marine survey and research were carried out on a global scale, and 6500m diving scientific research ship Deep Sea 6500, deep sea scientific research ship Hailing, 10,000m unmanned submersible trench, marine earth scientific research ship Future and deep sea cruise probe Pudao were built. The newly developed tool is a long-range autonomous unmanned submersible.
From 65438 to 0998, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center formulated a new Long-term Plan for Ocean Development, put forward the goal of "further understanding the earth", and set five research fields, including revealing the changing mechanism of the ocean and climate, investigating the seabed dynamics, exploring the marine ecosystem, analyzing the earth system, and studying new technologies for ocean development. It is pointed out that one of the important research goals in 2 1 century is to "explore the origin of life on earth". To this end, the Ocean Science and Technology Center has also launched two research projects, namely "Deep-sea Ecological Environment" and "Deep-sea Earth Drilling Plan".
Explore the underground biosphere
1977, albin, an American diving scientific research ship, discovered for the first time that there was a "biological community of hot water spray holes" around the hot water spray holes (the temperature was as high as 90℃) at the bottom of the sea near Galapagos Island in the Pacific Ocean. Taking this opportunity, in 1984, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center discovered the biological community of hot water blowholes in Sagami Beach 1200m not far from Tokyo by using "Deep Sea 2000", including insects living in the habitats formed by crustaceans, snails, crustaceans, polychaetes and anemones. According to research, these animals don't rely on photosynthesis, but use reducing low molecular weight compounds such as hydrogen sulfide and methane ejected from the earth as primary energy, and rely on food webs composed of chemically synthetic bacteria such as sulfating bacteria and methanating bacteria to provide energy. Not only that, but also "cold water spewing zone biological communities" were found in Sagami Beach, Japan Trench and Nanhai Trench near the Japanese archipelago. They are also biological communities born through chemical synthesis. So far, 18 cold water spewing zone communities and 13 hot water spewing hole communities have been found in the seabed around the Japanese archipelago.
Since the discovery of submarine hot water vent biota, scientists all over the world are competing to find deep-sea creatures in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. The results show that most of these hot water jet organisms live on both sides of the active ridge in geological structure. Moreover, there are some similarities between them. On the basis of considering the discontinuity of seafloor spreading and the historical process of seafloor spreading, scientists compared the biogeographic characteristics of hydrothermal vent biome, and put forward the following hypothesis: "The organisms living in the Atlantic hydrothermal vent biome originated in the East Pacific Ocean, and the most likely transmission routes may be the Southeast Indian Ocean Ridge and the Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge."
1996, Japan marine science and technology center used unmanned probe "Trench" to collect seabed sediment samples at the depth of about 1. 1000 meters in the world's deepest sea area, from which about 3,000 strains of microorganisms were isolated and new microbial species were found, such as 1000.
In August, 2000, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center discovered the deep-sea research ship Hailing at the junction of the central ridge, the southeast ridge and the southwest ridge of the Indian Ocean (2519 ′10 ″ south latitude, 70 2 ′ 24 ″ east longitude and 2420m water depth). This shows that even in the extreme environment such as the deep seabed, there are diverse biological worlds. Scientists imagine that it is possible for microbes in the early days of the earth to survive as they are without external interference; Since there are creatures living in such a harsh environment under the seabed crust, there will also be life on planets such as Mars. If the creatures with hot water vents adapted to the high temperature environment in the early days of the earth's birth, then this may help us solve the mystery of the origin of life on earth.
Further explore the origin of life on earth
There are all kinds of material layers on the seabed, which hold all kinds of historical data about the earth, from which we can also understand the changing process of the earth's climate. According to the current research, in the past 800,000 years, there have been many high temperatures (40℃) and cold temperatures (-40℃) on the earth. From 1 10,000 years ago to now, the earth is in an "abnormal stable period" of temperature. More importantly, the "underground biosphere" mentioned above is an excellent place to explore the origin of life. Comparing it with life phenomena on planets outside the earth will deepen human understanding of life and itself.
Therefore, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center has carried out the observation experiment of amino acid polymerization in supercritical water, the dissolution experiment of microorganisms in supercritical water and the stress physiology experiment. Scientists have found that tryptophan can make yeast survive and develop safely under high pressure (250 ~ 300 atmospheres), and higher biological cells (HeLa cells) will greatly change their bone morphology under 400 atmospheres.
In order to further explore the origin of life on earth, Japan will jointly implement the unified International Deep-sea Earth Exploration Program (IODP) with the United States from 2003. To this end, Japan built the "Earth" deep earth probe ship, and held a "launching" activity in the factory of Okayama Company of Mitsui Shipbuilding Company in June 5438+this year 10. The captain is 2 10/0m, 38m wide,16m high,16.2m deep, with a draft of 9.6m, a displacement of about 60,000 tons and a crew of 150 people. It can drill down from the bottom of the sea to 5-7 kilometers (the shortest distance from the crust to the mantle).
In order to carry out this international research activity, Japan Marine Science and Technology Center has set up a deep-sea biological risk center and developed a deep-sea microbial experiment system, which includes technologies such as preventing microbial contamination of crustal core samples, microbial analysis, microbial separation and cultivation of crustal core and rock samples. People have great expectations for this project and expect to make progress in uncovering the mystery of the origin of life.