Explore the deep sea by Cyclops submersible

Humans are about to reach a new depth at the bottom of the ocean, with the arrival of the Cyclops submersible with a range of 3,000 meters in the sea.

Named after the Greek mythic giant, the new generation Cyclops is designed to reach a depth of 3,000 meters above sea level, deeper than most modern divers. According to OceanGate Company in Washington, the bullet-shaped ship made of carbon fiber will be ready for launch in 2016. Overall, Cyclops is quite small in size compared to the legendary giant of the same name. It is 5.5m long, 3.4m wide, 2m high, with a total weight of 8,618kg on the mainland, 'slender' than other submarines thanks to Boeing's carbon fiber matrix technology .

There are only a few devices that can bring people to darker places in the ocean. Alvin, America's deepest submarine submarine, can reach a maximum depth of 4,500m, and after the overhaul is completed, it promises to be able to get down to about 6,500 meters from the sea. Of course, this is also the submarine of director James Cameron, the Deepsea Challenger, which takes 7 years and about 8 million USD for design and new construction. Thanks to this ship, the Hollywood filmmaker has set a record to become the world's deepest single diver, when he touches the bottom of the Mariana trench in the Pacific Ocean, with a depth of nearly 11,000 meters above sea level, in March / 2012. Mr. Cameron had recently donated the ship to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Cyclops diving ship based on Washington University design - (Photo: OceanGate)

The Gizmodo news site quoted Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate Co., which specializes in submarine rentals, said there are currently about 600 military submarines worldwide, only over 100 civilian submarines are registered. And Cyclops project developers say deep-sea submersibles are often not for commercial or research purposes. OceanGate spent $ 5 million on the University of Washington to build Cyclops, and the team of experts has revealed the design of this future submarine. The reason for naming the giant is that it has a 1.5m-wide glass dome in front, giving a 180-degree view to passengers. The hull is only 17cm thick thanks to the carbon fiber structure, but withstands water pressure up to 4,300 psi (at a depth of 3,000m). Besides, the lithium-polymer battery can operate for 8 hours, but Cyclops can still provide up to 96 hours of life support in dangerous conditions.

OceanGate hopes to provide Cyclops services for many different types of customers, including oil companies, mining, pharmaceutical research, research students and even ordinary travelers.'In order to operate the economy economically, you need to be able to serve many different customers in order to reduce costs,' said CEO Rush. OceanGate currently owns and leases many different submarines, including the 5-person Antipodes, up to 305m maximum. Researchers have just used this submarine to study the waters off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and found a lion fish that settled in deeper parts of the ocean compared to previous estimates.

If the depth of 3,000m is still not enough to satisfy ocean enthusiasts, the good news is that experts are also considering the possibility of making the 6.00m version, according to Gizmag.