China’s first deep diver: I want you to drink coffee at the bottom of the sea and call astronauts from the deep sea
When the reporter met Ye Cong at the China Shipbuilding Science Research Center in Wuxi, the interview time had been postponed twice. Finally, he struggled to squeeze out a little time between morning and afternoon meetings for an interview.
At 1:30 in the afternoon, when reporters knocked on the door of Ye Cong's office, he had just taken a nap, and his face was full of exhaustion. During the interview, which lasted for more than an hour, Ye Cong, the deputy director of the 702 Research Institute, was very busy. People kept knocking on the door and asking him to confirm with documents.
Whenever Ye Cong returns to his "deputy director" status, his expression is serious and unsmiling. Coupled with his stocky figure and bright forehead, he has an aura of calm but authority. But when he talks about his experience of diving in a submersible, he smiles unconsciously, his dimples deepen, and his tone becomes lively. He is completely different from the leader who signed the document a few minutes ago.
In Ye Cong's description, the pictures he saw on the seabed many years ago are still vivid in his mind: narrow trenches, cliff-like "cliffs", undulating "hills", various strange geological phenomena... talking about it As he did so, he seemed to have returned to the underwater world he had longed for.
"After staying in the sea of people for a long time, sometimes I want to go back to the deep sea and experience the unknown world again." Ye Cong sighed. As the first person in deep diving in China, he has driven submersibles many times, exposed himself to the vast underwater world, and observed the wonderful deep-sea creatures. Those precious moments are still of great significance to him today.
The clock turns back to Ye Cong's teenage years. Born in Wuhan in 1979, when he was in middle school, what he looked forward to most every month was the publication of the latest issue of "Ship Knowledge" magazine. As soon as he opened the magazine, Ye Cong entered that mysterious world: the endless blue sea, the vast unknown world hidden under the turbulent waves, and the huge ships riding the wind and waves...
"When I was a child, I was eager to get in touch with the mysterious fields of deep space and deep sea. I was also particularly interested in equipment that looked powerful, such as airplanes and ships." Ye Cong said. During the college entrance examination, he chose to study naval engineering at Harbin Engineering University - a seemingly unpopular direction, but his parents understood that this was their son's interest and did not raise any objections.
In 2001, when he was looking for a job after graduating from his undergraduate degree, Ye Cong, who especially wanted to make new equipment by himself, did not hesitate to choose Institute 702, which focused on shipbuilding theory experiments and new ship design. What he didn't expect was that his dream would come true so quickly.
In 2002, China determined to build a manned submersible. The Ministry of Science and Technology handed over the "Jiaolong" manned submersible project to the 702 Institute, and Ye Cong, who had just graduated from university, was appointed as the chief designer of the general layout.
Photo courtesy of Jiaolong China Shipbuilding Science Research Center
Hu Zhen, deputy chief designer of the "Jiaolong" project, once explained the reason for choosing Ye Cong in an interview: "There were many college students entering the institute at that time, but there were few projects in the institute and the income was low. It was at the lower-middle level in Wuxi City. Some college students I chose to change jobs, but Ye Cong is calm, likes to study, and handles problems in an orderly manner, which makes us feel reliable.”
"The income was really not high when I first started working." Ye Cong said that just like choosing a major in college, when he was looking for a job, he didn't think about how much money he would make. After all, he had the opportunity to join the "Jiaolong" project team, and he and Ye Cong Cong’s dream is almost 100% consistent - he is eager to contact unknown areas, and the deep sea has endless possibilities; he also looks forward to participating in the production of "very powerful" equipment. In his work, his strong curiosity is greatly satisfied.
Developing a deep-sea submersible sounds cool, but actually doing it requires hard work day and night. Faced with a project that no one had ever done before, with 11 departments, a team of hundreds of people, and support of thousands of people, after years of unremitting efforts, Ye Cong and his team members worked together to design layout drawings and revised them repeatedly. Hundreds of times, finally in 2007, the "Jiaolong" manned submersible was successfully developed.
After that, during the sea trials from 2009 to 2012, the "Jiaolong" dived a total of 51 times, and Ye Cong assumed the main driving task for 38 of the dive tests.
After ten years of ups and downs and ten years of hard work, on June 24, 2012, Ye Cong drove the "Jiaolong" to successfully dive to 7,020 meters below sea level. That day, Ye Cong made a "super long-distance call" on the bottom of the sea. On the other end of the phone were the three astronauts on the "Tiangong-1". Under the deep sea and in space, Ye Cong and the astronauts exchanged congratulations, achieving the world's most distant and romantic "sea-to-sky dialogue."
When the "Jiaolong" dived to a depth of 7,020 meters under the sea, through the hydroacoustic communication system, Ye Cong, as the main pilot, sent a voice from the depths of the ocean to outer space: "Bless my country's manned spaceflight and manned deep diving undertakings to achieve glory. Achievement!" At this moment, Xu Jinnan, who was commentating in the live broadcast, had tears in his eyes. Xu Jinnan, who is in his 70s, has been waiting for this deep dive all his life.
Xu Yunnan has the deepest experience of China's deep dive journey, from catching up, surpassing and leading. He is one of the first batch of talents cultivated for deep-sea development in my country. He is also the pioneer and founder of China's submersible industry, and has devoted his life to the research and development of submersibles.
However, due to various limitations such as economic development level and concepts, before 2000, my country's deep-sea manned submersible manufacturing technology was almost a blank slate, lagging behind the world's advanced level by decades. Until around 2000, because the application for exploration of marine mineral resources required manned submersibles, driven by practical needs, in 2002, the second year of Ye Cong’s work, the Ministry of Science and Technology transferred the "Jiaolong" to The development of deep-sea manned submersibles has been listed as a major project of the National High-tech Research and Development Plan. The self-design, independent integrated development of the "Jiaolong" manned submersible has been launched, and the final assembly work is undertaken by 702.
According to the book "Deep Diving: A Record of the Development of China's Deep-Sea Manned Submersibles", 65-year-old Xu Jinnan was recuperating in San Francisco, USA. When he received a call from Institute 702, he was suffering from various diseases and could not wait for a moment. Regardless of the concerns of his family, he resolutely packed up his luggage and boarded the plane back to China, shouldering the important task of chief designer of the "Jiaolong".
At this moment, the most experienced seniors and the most promising newcomers gather together.
As the chief engineer, Xu Zhennan saw that the young Ye Cong could play a leading role. Not only did he choose Ye Cong to participate in this project, but he also served as the chief designer of the general layout. Seeing Mr. Xu, who had been retired for many years, come back, it was a great inspiration for Ye Cong. Since then, working side by side with his predecessors, he has plunged into the manned submersible business, growing rapidly day and night.
In just 10 years, my country's manned deep diving business has gone from a blank slate to a depth of 7,000 meters, which indicates that my country has the ability to carry out scientific research and resource exploration in 99.8% of the world's ocean depths.
The famous marine geologist Wang Pinxian, who had been waiting for nearly 40 years, was equally excited about the historic moment when the "Jiaolong" dived to a depth of 7,020 meters.
Born in 1936, this pioneer in ancient oceanographic research in China has always dreamed of conducting deep dives to the bottom of the sea for investigation. In 1978, Wang Pinxian heard about deep diving in Paris. 40 years later, due to the leap-forward development of my country's deep diving industry, his long-standing dream came true.
After "Jiaolong", in order to better focus on localization and independent research and development of core components, the Ministry of Science and Technology assigned the design and development task of the 4,500-meter "Deep Sea Warrior" manned submersible. Ye Cong served as deputy chief designer and quality engineer , also shouldering the tasks of co-pilot and commander. The localization rate of this submersible reaches 95%, which has greatly promoted the improvement of my country's related scientific and technological level.
Photo courtesy of China Shipbuilding Science Research Center of Deep Sea Warrior
Due to various reasons, Wang Pixian was unable to dive on the "Jiaolong", but he did not want to miss the "Deep Sea Warrior" again. In May 2018, at the age of 82, Wang Pinxian boarded the "Deep Sea Warrior" manned submersible three times in 9 days and dived into the depths of the South China Sea. He became the world's oldest deep-sea diver and discovered large cold-water corals in the South China Sea. First person.
Carrying a top scientist like Wang Pinxian and diving deep into the seabed made Ye Cong feel very happy. "It's particularly interesting to listen to scientists tell stories in the submersible, because scientists are usually very busy and generally don't have the opportunity to tell so many stories on land." Ye Cong listened to the scientists talk about everything from a fresh stone to the structure of the entire earth, from the ocean to The sedimentation at the bottom talked about how the earth's crust was formed. For a moment, he seemed to be the little boy reading the "Ship Knowledge" magazine again.
Ye Cong's love for the ocean was influenced by his ears and eyes, from the level of feelings to the level of knowledge and details, and he also developed a strong interest in geology and biology. Ye Cong likes to read popular science books written by Wang Pinxian, and also knows that he is also making popular science videos at Station B. He hopes to be like Wang Pinxian, who can tell more people about his experiences of many deep dives in addition to his busy work. .
In Ye Cong's view, scientists are the group of people who best understand the value and significance of submersibles. The relationship between Ye Cong and the scientists is not only "brother and passenger", but also a mutual achievement: Ye Cong participated in the development and driving of the submersible, taking them to find the scientific secrets of the underwater world, while the scientists used the help of diving Tools, truly arrive at the scene and sink into practice.
After the successful localization of the "Deep Sea Warrior", in 2016, the Ministry of Science and Technology assigned the development task of the 11,000-meter deep-sea manned submersible "Struggler". On the recommendation of Xu Qinnan, Ye Cong, who was only in his 30s, became the chief designer of the project. As of November 10, 2020, the "Struggle" successfully landed in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest trench, with a depth of 10,909 meters. It set a new record for China's manned deep diving and was the first time in the world to simultaneously sink 3 people into the ocean. Taken to the deepest part of the ocean. This time, Ye Cong was not only the chief designer, but also the commander-in-chief, and he still participated in several sea test dives.
From the "Jiaolong" to the "Deep Sea Warrior" to the "Struggle", the development process of the three deep-sea manned submersibles is difficult to summarize in words. But Ye Cong doesn't want to just talk about past achievements. He feels that the successful development of manned deep submersibles and the 10,000-meter deep dive have only opened a gap to the deep-sea world, and everything has just begun.
Today, the three submersibles are actively serving in "all the seas of the world", performing manned deep diving missions. Just in early May this year, the "Struggle" followed the "Exploration 2" scientific research ship. During the 14-day voyage, the scientific expedition team completed a total of 7 manned missions on the "Struggle" within 5 days of operation. The deep-diving operation was fruitful, collecting 64 polymetallic nodule samples, 4 rock samples, 63 short columnar sediment samples, and 270 liters of seawater samples... Now, Ye Cong and his team partners are still continuing to improve their "Strugglers" No." operating ability.
Photo courtesy of China Shipbuilding Science and Technology Center
What else can submersibles do in the future? Ye Cong not only wants to share what he sees and hears, but also hopes to use the power of technology to take people to the ocean world he loves.
In Ye Cong's vision, he hopes that manned submersibles can go deep into the polar regions, and that there will be 5G signals, gas stations, charging stations, maintenance stations, and even people can go to the bottom of the sea to order a cup of coffee... Among them, there is one thing The closest thing possible to reality: shallow sea sightseeing.
Starting in 2021, Ye Cong's team has been committed to developing a new submersible with a "fully transparent glass shell". "We imagine that this kind of submersible can only reach two to three hundred meters below the sea surface. Sunlight can still shine. There are many objects to observe in the water, and the experience of riding on the submersible will be very good. In the future, if this kind of submersible can If it is used in the tourism industry, if you want to see marine animals, you will not only have to go to the aquarium. The shell of this kind of submersible is expected to be produced this year. I believe that in the near future, people will be able to take it for diving. You can enjoy the ocean world through the transparent glass,” said Ye Cong.
After thinking about it for a while, Ye Cong immediately explained: "Talk about so many future visions, not because we don't focus on equipment production. I think that only by making the scenes in my mind extremely broad and constantly breaking through the boundaries of imagination, a lot of" Impossible becomes possible."
"I believe that in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta, there must be many people like us, working together for some special and interesting things."
