China's First Self-Built Ocean Drilling Vessel, "Dreams": Ushering in a New Era of Deep-Sea Exploration

China's First Self-Built Ocean Drilling Vessel, "Dreams": Ushering in a New Era of Deep-Sea ExplorationOn November 17, 2024, China's first domestically designed and built ocean drilling vessel, "Dreams," was officially commissioned in Guangzhou. This marks a crucial step forward in China's deep-sea exploration capabilities and the modernization of its equipment

China's First Self-Built Ocean Drilling Vessel, "Dreams": Ushering in a New Era of Deep-Sea Exploration

On November 17, 2024, China's first domestically designed and built ocean drilling vessel, "Dreams," was officially commissioned in Guangzhou. This marks a crucial step forward in China's deep-sea exploration capabilities and the modernization of its equipment. This giant offshore drilling platform, measuring 179.8 meters long and 32.8 meters wide, with a displacement of 42,600 tons, boasts global unlimited navigation capabilities and a 11,000-meter seabed drilling capacity. It will strongly support national energy and resource security, the building of a strong maritime nation, and provide an advanced platform for global marine scientific research. The commissioning of "Dreams" not only realizes the long-held dream of Chinese scientists to possess their own ocean drilling vessel, but also opens a new era for China's deep-sea exploration, signifying a transition from participant to leader in the field of deep-sea scientific research.

I. "Dreams": Born from a Dream, Achieving the Future

"When will we have our own ocean drilling vessel?" This question, arising from the hearts of Chinese scientists, reflects the aspirations and efforts of generations of researchers. For a long time, cutting-edge technologies and equipment in the field of deep-sea exploration were primarily held by a few developed countries. The deep sea, a mysterious realm covering more than half of the Earth's surface, has presented a significant challenge to human exploration due to its dark, low-temperature, and high-pressure environment. However, the deep-sea crust is much thinner than the continental crust, averaging only 7 kilometers thick, making it an ideal location for studying the Earth's internal structure. To unravel the mysteries of the Earth's deep structure, understand the laws of plate tectonics, and explore the abundant mineral, oil, gas, and biological resources hidden in the deep sea, scientists have developed three major deep-sea exploration methods: deep drilling, deep diving, and deep-sea networks. "Dreams," as a crucial component of "deep drilling," undertakes the important task of drilling down from the deep-sea floor to obtain precious geological samples (cores).

By analyzing these core samples, scientists can research major scientific issues such as ocean and climate change, Earth's deep dynamics, deep-life, and geological disasters. Since the 1960s, the international community has undertaken the Ocean Drilling Program, achieving fruitful results. China joined the International Ocean Discovery Program in the 1990s, obtaining 5,500 meters of high-quality continuous cores in the South China Sea, providing valuable 32-million-year deep-sea records for research on the evolution of the South China Sea and East Asian paleoclimate. However, due to the lack of an independent ocean drilling vessel, Chinese scientists could only participate, incurring high costs and being subject to the arrangements of international collaborations, unable to independently organize voyages. Owning an independent ocean drilling vessel became the key to achieving a leapfrog development in China's deep-sea scientific research.

II. "Made in China": Technological Breakthroughs and Innovative Design

At the end of 2017, the "Dreams" ocean drilling vessel construction project was officially approved. The China Shipbuilding Group Company Limited's Seventh 08 Institute undertook the research and design responsibilities. Deep-sea drilling is considered the "crown jewel" of marine technology, and the design and construction of ultra-deep-water drilling equipment is a comprehensive test of a nation's shipbuilding industry development level. The independent design and construction of "Dreams" marks a significant breakthrough in China's high-end shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment fields, eliminating dependence on foreign technologies.

The research and development team, benchmarking against the only two similar ocean drilling vessels globallythe U.S.'s "JOIDES Resolution" and Japan's "Chikyu"proposed a design goal of "small tonnage, multi-functionality, and modularity." "Small tonnage" aims to control construction and operating costs; "multi-functionality" is achieved through flexible modular design, enabling various functions such as ocean science drilling, deep-sea oil and gas drilling, and natural gas hydrate exploration and trial production; "modularity" allows "Dreams" to flexibly switch between different equipment and modules based on different mission requirements, enabling rapid function adjustment and conversion.

To achieve this goal, the research and development and construction team overcame more than fifty key core technologies across more than ten major categories and completed several world-first designs, such as innovative hull designs and a novel combined double moon pool. The combined double moon pool on "Dreams" is the world's first to design the central moon pool of a research vessel as a large and small connected structure, better meeting the requirements of different scientific research operations and equipment characteristics; the flexible drilling platform design can meet four different drilling operation modes; the world's first DP3 (energy storage intelligent closed-loop power grid) dynamic positioning system is not only energy-efficient and environmentally friendly but also ensures the stability and safety of the hull even in a super typhoon of level 16.

III. A Leading Mobile "National Laboratory": Research Functions and Equipment Support

"Dreams" not only possesses powerful drilling capabilities but is also a mobile "national laboratory" equipped with world-class research equipment. The vessel has nine functional laboratories with a total area exceeding 3,000 square meters, one-third larger than "Chikyu," covering multiple disciplines such as geophysics, paleomagnetism, microbiology, basic geology, inorganic geochemistry, ocean science, organic geochemistry, natural gas hydrates, and drilling technology.

The laboratories are equipped with world-class magnetic shielding rooms, a Class 10,000 cleanroom for geological microbiology, and the world's first shipboard automated core transmission and storage system, capable of meeting the needs of multidisciplinary integrated research. Some experimental conditions even surpass those of land-based laboratories. After the cores emerge from the water, they can be quickly transported to the laboratory via an automated system for cutting, sampling, and experimentation, greatly improving research efficiency. Furthermore, "Dreams" boasts the world's largest and most advanced integrated information system for research vessels, including the nation's first digital twin system for a research vessel, covering over 20,000 monitoring points throughout the vessel. This enables comprehensive perception of the entire vessel's status, monitoring of the entire drilling and sampling process, intelligent experimental collaboration, and ship-shore integration, achieving internationally leading levels of informationization.

"Dreams'" independently developed hydraulic lifting drilling rig integrates four drilling and sampling operation modes and three coring methods. Its comprehensive drilling efficiency and hard rock drilling capacity are more than 40% higher than traditional electric-drive drilling rigs, with a maximum drilling depth of 10,000 meters. The independently developed deep-water riserless mud circulation system (RMR) achieves zero seabed discharge, reducing drilling costs and demonstrating China's commitment to environmental protection.

IV. A New Chapter in Deep-Sea Exploration: Scientific Goals and Industrial Drive

The commissioning of "Dreams" will drive the realization of a series of major scientific goals. Its 10,000-meter drilling capability makes it possible to achieve the scientific dream of "penetrating the Moho discontinuity and reaching the upper mantle," which will help scientists better answer major scientific questions about the Earth's internal operation mechanism, the origin of life, and geomagnetic reversals. "Dreams" will also contribute to the scientific community's transformation of multi-sphere and multi-disciplinary research paradigms, promoting advances in Earth system science.

Beyond basic scientific research, "Dreams" will also serve the national "dual carbon" strategy and disaster prevention and mitigation. It has the sampling capability for research on geological carbon sequestration in the ocean and will play an important role in studying the historical records of geological disasters such as earthquakes and submarine landslides. Furthermore, the operation of "Dreams" will drive the development of related equipment industries, promoting the research and development of new materials such as drill bits and drill pipes, accelerating the domestic substitution of wellhead equipment, promoting upgrades in marine engineering equipment manufacturing, and driving technological advances in underwater information and communication equipment.

The commissioning of "Dreams" also provides crucial equipment support for China to lead a new round of international ocean drilling programs, promoting a shift from participant to leader in ocean drilling and facilitating in-depth cooperation with other international large-scale scientific projects. It will promote international scientific exchange, contributing Chinese wisdom and strength to humanity's common exploration of the ocean and Earth's mysteries. The success of "Dreams" is not only an engineering miracle but also symbolizes the rise of China's deep-sea technological strength. It will open a new chapter in China's deep-sea exploration, making new contributions to humanity's understanding of the Earth and the ocean.

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