ID :
14221
Tue, 07/29/2008 - 12:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/14221
The shortlink copeid
Mir submersibles begin Baikal exploration Tuesday
ULAN UDE, July 29 (Itar-Tass) - The deep-submergence manned vehicles Mir-1 and Mir-2 begin the exploration of Lake Baikal on Tuesday. It is planned that the bathyscaphs will dive to the deepest point of about 1,700 metres at the lake bottom.
President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn of the Republic of Buryatia, andMikhail Slipenchuk, Director of the Investment Company Metropol, are to participate in the first submergences. The Company finances the expedition via the Fund for the Promotion of the Lake Baikal Conservation by investing over $6 million in the two-year project.
The second crew consists of Yevgeny Chernyayev, operator of the Mir submergence vehicle, Vladimir Gruzdev, Member of Parliament, andparticipant in the expedition of the research vessel Akademik Fyodorov to the North Pole and submergence in the Mir-1 bathyscaph, and Arnold Tulokhonov, Director of the Baikal Institute of Management of Natural Resources of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
The Baikal deepwater exploration expedition by means of Mir submersibles is to leave a visible trace on the lake bottom. At themaximum depth one the crews of the submersibles will install a memorable mark -- a three-faceted pyramid, about 50 centimetres high. The facets of the pyramid represent the national emblems of Russia and Buryatia as well as the inscription "85 years of the Republic of Buryatia", an official in the republican government press service has told Itar-Tass. Buryatia will be widely marking this jubilee in the autumn of this year. The pyramid is made from rustless steel.
It is the first time that the Mir submersibles will operate in fresh water, and for the third time independently, without the carrying vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh.
The role of the basic vessel this time is performed by a speciallyconverted barge, 64 metres long, 12. 5 m wide, and with a displacement of 1,000 tonnes. The barge has a reinforced deck, which accommodates the Mir vehicles, living quarters, a laboratory and a 100-tonne truck-mounted crane to lower the submersibles to the water surface and hoist them up to deck after their dives.
A woman, Natalya Komarova, head of the Committee on the Use of Natural Resources and Ecology of the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament, will also participate in deepwater submergences of the Mir vehicles in Lake Baikal for the first time, Expedition Director Artur Chilingarov has announced.
In the preceding days, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles successfully made two technical dives into the Lake near Turka Settlement to depths ranging from 120 to 400 metres.
The expedition has been assigned several tasks: to dive to the maximum depth point of Lake Baikal bottom and verify the Lake's depth, explore places of underwater discharges of thermal springs and mud volcanoes, study the bed of the Barguzin Gulf and the jointing of Akademichesky Range and Svyatoi Nos Peninsula, to research into Lake Baikal hydrocarbons -- to determine their reserves and their background level for an estimate of water pollution; to obtain data on phenomena of tectonic nature on the lake bottom for a subsequent prediction of natural processes, and inspect archeological artefacts. In particular, a legend goes that the gold hoard of Admiral Kolchak lies down there on Lake Baikal bed.
While preparing for the expedition, scientists and specialists of the Oceanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have carried out a certain amount of work to re-equip the submergence vehicles for operation in freshwater environment.
In order to make up for the vehicles' loss of buoyancy in fresh water, specialists have had to remove part of mounted equipment and install additional buoyancy blocks. In result, the Mir vehicles, each weighing over 18 tonnes, have become 200-300 kg lighter than previously.
The Mir-1 and Mir-2 are to make 60 submergences during the expedition's first phase, and 100 ones during the second phase in 2009. The Foundation of Albert II, the Prince of Monaco, the Japan Association of Baikal Programmes, the British Royal Society and other authoritative international and nature conservation organisations and experts are expected to participate in individual stages of the expedition
President Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn of the Republic of Buryatia, andMikhail Slipenchuk, Director of the Investment Company Metropol, are to participate in the first submergences. The Company finances the expedition via the Fund for the Promotion of the Lake Baikal Conservation by investing over $6 million in the two-year project.
The second crew consists of Yevgeny Chernyayev, operator of the Mir submergence vehicle, Vladimir Gruzdev, Member of Parliament, andparticipant in the expedition of the research vessel Akademik Fyodorov to the North Pole and submergence in the Mir-1 bathyscaph, and Arnold Tulokhonov, Director of the Baikal Institute of Management of Natural Resources of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
The Baikal deepwater exploration expedition by means of Mir submersibles is to leave a visible trace on the lake bottom. At themaximum depth one the crews of the submersibles will install a memorable mark -- a three-faceted pyramid, about 50 centimetres high. The facets of the pyramid represent the national emblems of Russia and Buryatia as well as the inscription "85 years of the Republic of Buryatia", an official in the republican government press service has told Itar-Tass. Buryatia will be widely marking this jubilee in the autumn of this year. The pyramid is made from rustless steel.
It is the first time that the Mir submersibles will operate in fresh water, and for the third time independently, without the carrying vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh.
The role of the basic vessel this time is performed by a speciallyconverted barge, 64 metres long, 12. 5 m wide, and with a displacement of 1,000 tonnes. The barge has a reinforced deck, which accommodates the Mir vehicles, living quarters, a laboratory and a 100-tonne truck-mounted crane to lower the submersibles to the water surface and hoist them up to deck after their dives.
A woman, Natalya Komarova, head of the Committee on the Use of Natural Resources and Ecology of the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament, will also participate in deepwater submergences of the Mir vehicles in Lake Baikal for the first time, Expedition Director Artur Chilingarov has announced.
In the preceding days, the Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles successfully made two technical dives into the Lake near Turka Settlement to depths ranging from 120 to 400 metres.
The expedition has been assigned several tasks: to dive to the maximum depth point of Lake Baikal bottom and verify the Lake's depth, explore places of underwater discharges of thermal springs and mud volcanoes, study the bed of the Barguzin Gulf and the jointing of Akademichesky Range and Svyatoi Nos Peninsula, to research into Lake Baikal hydrocarbons -- to determine their reserves and their background level for an estimate of water pollution; to obtain data on phenomena of tectonic nature on the lake bottom for a subsequent prediction of natural processes, and inspect archeological artefacts. In particular, a legend goes that the gold hoard of Admiral Kolchak lies down there on Lake Baikal bed.
While preparing for the expedition, scientists and specialists of the Oceanology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have carried out a certain amount of work to re-equip the submergence vehicles for operation in freshwater environment.
In order to make up for the vehicles' loss of buoyancy in fresh water, specialists have had to remove part of mounted equipment and install additional buoyancy blocks. In result, the Mir vehicles, each weighing over 18 tonnes, have become 200-300 kg lighter than previously.
The Mir-1 and Mir-2 are to make 60 submergences during the expedition's first phase, and 100 ones during the second phase in 2009. The Foundation of Albert II, the Prince of Monaco, the Japan Association of Baikal Programmes, the British Royal Society and other authoritative international and nature conservation organisations and experts are expected to participate in individual stages of the expedition
