Innovation and Development

First Manned Submersible Explores Deep Sea

On Jul. 18, “Jiaolong”, the first China-made manned submersible, designed and developed with participation of the Shenyang Institute of Automation, CAS, returned after 52 days’ 3,000 m deep sea trial diving. The success of the 3,000 m deep sea test of “Jiaolong” manned submersible marks that China becomes the fifth country in the world, following the United States, France, Russia and Japan, to have the capabilities of manned deep dive and operation to such a depth. “Jiaolong” began the 3,000 m deep sea test at the end of last May. So far, “Jiaolong” has completed 37 dives. During this sea test, “Jiaolong” has reached more than 3,000 meters below the sea level for 4 times, with the deepest reaching 3,759 meters, which exceeds the average ocean depth of the latest world record.

Chang’e-2: Close-up Photographs

Chang’e-2 was successfully launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:59:57 p. m. on Oct. 1, inaugurating the second phase of China’s Lunar Exploration Program. Chang’e-2 is a pilot satellite for the second phase of China’s Lunar Exploration Program. One of its key tasks is to make a high-precision imaging of the landing area for Chang’e 3. When flying around the Moon, its flying height will be reduced to 100 km from 200 km of Chang’e 1 for close-up photographs of the moon. The resolution of CCD camera of Chang’e 2 will also be improved to 7 meters from120 meters of Chang’e 1, which is improved by 17 times. The CCD camera on Change’e-2 was developed by the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, CAS. To improve the imaging clarity and resolution of the camera, researchers made special revisions to the principle of sensitization of the camera and adopted the multi-area sensitized and integrated technology in it. The 3D topographic map of the whole moon completed this time uses mean polar axis coordinate system. Its height datum uses the surface of a perfect sphere with a radius of 1,737.4 km on the moon. Its spatial resolution is 500m, mean square error of plane is 192m and mean square error of elevation is 120m. The 3D topographic map of the whole moon completed by China’s Lunar Exploration Program is the 3D topographic map of the whole moon with the highest resolution in plane and elevation and the highest data accuracy in the world.