Diving supplies prepared for China's manned sub

ABOARD XIANGYANGHONG - The crew of China's manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong has finished preparing underwater supplies ahead of the mission's first diving operation, scientists said on Saturday.

The supplies prepared aboard the Xiangyanghong 09 oceanographic vessel carrying Jiaolong include daily and emergency materials, said Tang Jialing, one of the divers on the mission.

Early on Thursday morning, Jiaolong reached a cold spring operation area where the water depth is no more than 1,000 meters amid high waves and strong gales. The adverse weather forced the sub to move on from the area, but scientists nevertheless installed and tested research devices.

On Saturday, the mission's crew members prepared enough oxygen supplies for the sub in normal and emergency conditions, as well as enough back-up oxygen to last 60 hours.

They also finished preparing food, drinking water and other necessary supplies including cameras, urinals and computers designed to be resistant to moisture, salt spray and fungus.

It is expected that Jiaolong will now return to the cold spring area. The time of its diving operations will be decided based on sea conditions.

Jiaolong left the country's eastern port city of Jiangyin on Monday for its first voyage of experimental application with 14 scientists.

The 113-day-long mission will include experiments on Jiaolong's positioning system, as well as deep-sea ecological and geological surveys in the South China Sea, biological surveying and geological sampling in the northeast and northwest Pacific Ocean.

Jiaolong set a new dive record after reaching a depth of 7,062 meters in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench in June 2012.