China's first deep-ocean drilling vessel commissioned

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By Chang Qin, Liu Juanxi, People's Daily

It marked a significant step forward for China in deep-sea exploration, detection and mining.

Zhou Chang, head of the command of the drilling vessel from the China Geological Survey, the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that one of the key functions of the Meng Xiang vessel after its commissioning is to serve as a significant platform for global scientists to conduct deep-sea drilling research.

Feng Qizeng, head of the drilling system of the Meng Xiang, said that the vessel is capable of conducting drilling operations on the seabed at depths of several thousand meters, accessing rock core samples from the seabed, and enabling direct observation, analysis, testing, and scientific research.

Thanks to technological innovation and equipment integration, the vessel is able to drill as far as 11,000 meters beneath the sea, Feng added. The drilling system of the vessel leads the world.

The Meng Xiang vessel is like a mobile "national laboratory" at sea. On board, there are nine laboratories including basic geology, paleomagnetism, organic geochemistry, microbiology, marine science, natural gas hydrates, geophysics, drilling technology, with a total area exceeding 3,000 square meters. These labs are equipped with over 150 sets of various precision experimental instruments.

The Meng Xiang vessel is equipped with an "intelligent brain." Its advanced comprehensive information system can aggregate and analyze data from over 20,000 monitoring points in real time, enabling intelligent monitoring, intelligent collaboration in experiments, intelligent health protection for personnel, and intelligent vessel-shore integration throughout the entire operation process.

"For offshore drilling and experiments, the stability of the vessel is crucial. The Meng Xiang vessel can operate normally with a degree six on the Douglas sea scale and survive under level-17 typhoons," said Zhang Haibin, chief designer of the vessel.

The vessel has a gross tonnage of 33,000 tons, a total length of 179.8 meters, a beam of 32.8 meters, a displacement of 42,600 tons, a range of 15,000 nautical miles, and a crew capacity of 180 people. It can work at sea for 120 consecutive days without replenishment. With a draft of 9.2 meters, it can pass major sea areas and dock at major terminals around the world.

It is reported that the preliminary design of the vessel was completed in May 2020. Construction work started in November 2021, and comprehensive sea trials were finished in October 2024.

"It is the first ship of its kind, so there was no precedent to follow. The engineering volume is more than ten times that of existing marine vessels and tens of times that of scientific research vessels. The enormous pressure at the depths of 11,000 meters poses challenges to equipment, water, electricity, fluids, and materials," Zhang said.

By leveraging the concept of "modular design," several world-class technological challenges have been overcome, which has made this small-tonnage vessel multifunctional. The vessel is the first in the world that combines deep-sea scientific drilling, deep-sea oil and gas exploration, and natural gas hydrate exploration and trial mining.

After two rounds of sea trials, the Meng Xiang vessel has proven its key performance indicators to exceed design expectations, achieving several major breakthroughs. It has established a fully independent Chinese technological system for the design and construction of ultra-deepwater drilling equipment.

For over half a century, thousands of drilling operations have been conducted in major oceans worldwide, leading to a series of scientific achievements. However, the dream of "penetrating the Mohorovicic discontinuity and entering the upper mantle" has yet to be realized.

"The Earth is like an egg with a shell: the 'eggshell' is the crust, the 'egg white' is the mantle, and the 'egg yolk' is the core, with the Mohorovicic discontinuity between the crust and mantle," explained Zhu Rixiang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Penetrating the Mohorovicic discontinuity has significant implications for gaining a deeper understanding of the Earth's interior material composition, structure, physical and chemical properties, evolutionary patterns, and can also play a crucial role in areas such as earthquake prediction and mineral resource exploration.

With the official commissioning of the Meng Xiang vessel, China will possess the capability to independently organize expeditions, similar to the United States, Japan, and Europe, thereby playing a more significant role in international scientific ocean drilling.

It is reported that China is initiating its own international ocean drilling program and will autonomously organize expeditions using the Meng Xiang vessel, in collaboration with the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) led by Europe and Japan in the future.