![]() A unit that can move on its own will be far more technically challenging and will likely be beyond the abilities of Chinese engineers. The Chinese lab will be moveable, but whether it will be self-propelled or require an external means of mobility is not publicly known. ![]() Very little information has been released on the Chinese lab and some big questions remain to be answered. NR-1 was tasked with a number of similar missions to the Chinese project including search, object recovery, geological survey, oceanographic research, and installation and maintenance of underwater equipment.īecause of the military use of NR-1, which included recovery of advanced missiles and even pieces of the space shuttle Challenger, many people believe that the Chinese mobile lab will also be used for military reasons, potentially even as a part of the “Underwater Great Wall” that was reported recently, which aims to keep US and Russian subs out of the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas. Rumours of the Chinese desire for such a craft had been floating around the marine minerals space for a year or so with some people believing that it might be a converted nuclear submarine, similar to the old US Navy research sub NR-1 that was launched back in 1969. It’s been a while since any underwater labs made the news so it will be interesting to see whether or not this recent spike of interest might cause others to have a second look at their utility for non-governmental uses. The first was the news out of China that the government is intending to develop an underwater laboratory that would be capable of operating in depths of up to 3,000 metres and second was that NASA had sent a team of astronauts to the ‘Aquarius’ marine lab, 18 metres below the surface of the waters off Key Largo in Florida. Shallow water during a storm would be dangerous to a WW2-era submarine.Two pieces of news over the past month or so got me thinking about the use of underwater research labs. ![]() The exact effects will depend on ocean bottom composition, angle of impact, speed of impact and luck. If the ocean bottom is too close then the sub may crash. Shallow waters are a different storyīecause of the turbulence from very large waves from these megastorms, the waves may be large enough to force a sub to drop further in the water column than it should. Remember that submarines aren't designed with a hull shape that induces rotational stability like surface ships do. The shallow turbulence from the crashing waves is what the submariners feel at depth. The humans inside the submarine won't like the jostling but the sub will survive. ( Crush depths) Structures that strong can easily handle the pounding that a very large wave is going to dump on it. Submarines in late WW2 were designed to handle overpressures of 20 bar (2.11169 MPa) at depths of 200 to 280 metres (660 to 920 feet). Though not as violent as on the surface, these large waves can cause a submarine to take 5 to 10 degree rolls. In extremely violent storms like hurricanes and cyclones, wave motion can reach 400 feet or more below the surface. In fact, during even moderate storms the submarine stays perfectly level at its submerged depth while the waves crash above. That being said, multiple navymen on quora suggest otherwise, such as here and here.įinally, The Huffington Post post covered What Happens Underwater During a Hurricane? EDIT: The referenced Navy submarine FAQ was cached on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine! The full text reads:ĭuring normal weather conditions, a submerged submarine will not rock with the motion of the waves on the surface. The deepest we ever felt surface effects was about 150 feet and it was pretty good sized storm on the surface above us. Violent storms may be felt as deep as 400 feet (see item 21). To quote U235EU, who paraphrased the US Navy Submarine FAQ (now unavailable):
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