According to China's "Xinhua Viewpoint" WeChat public account, China's deep-sea multifunctional scientific research and archaeology vessel "Explorer 3" was delivered on the 26th in Nansha, Guangzhou, China. The vessel has fully independent intellectual property rights and is China's first comprehensive scientific research vessel with capabilities for global (including polar) deep-sea exploration and ice-zone manned deep-diving support.
The "Explorer 3" is approximately 104 meters long with a displacement of about 10,000 tons. It has dual-direction icebreaking capability at the bow and stern, a cruising range of 15,000 nautical miles, and can carry 80 people. It can conduct deep-sea scientific research and archaeological surveys, as well as perform scientific research in polar regions during the summer, enhancing China's manned deep-diving capability from the entire sea depth to the entire ocean, effectively improving China's deep-sea archaeological operations.
The "Explorer 3" was officially initiated in December 2022, co-funded by the Hainan Provincial Government, Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City Development and Construction Co., Ltd., and the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was independently designed and constructed by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation's Guangzhou Shipyard International. More than 100 research and construction units participated, with nearly 10 key equipment research and integration units involved.
During the research and construction process, various research institutions, enterprises, and universities broke through the monopoly bottlenecks in key core technologies, such as ice area ship key design technology, high precision dynamic positioning control technology under ice load, and intelligent ship control technology.
This ship is equipped with China's largest watertight science moon pool system developed by the China Shipbuilding 704 Institute, an integrated power propulsion system by the 711 Institute, a multibeam and underwater acoustic communication system developed by the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an underwater acoustic positioning system developed by Harbin Engineering University, achieving the first application of several Chinese supporting system devices.
In shipbuilding, Guangzhou Shipyard International made significant breakthroughs in key core technologies such as overall design technology for ice-area vessels, intelligent control technology, low-temperature precise compensation technology, integrated design of ice-area load and heavy load structure, as well as the optimization layout and high-precision installation of scientific research equipment.