China's first deep-ocean drilling vessel enters service

China's first domestically built ocean drilling vessel — Mengxiang, or Dream — was commissioned in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Sunday, marking a major leap in the nation's deep-sea exploration and mining endeavors. With a length of 179.8 meters and a width of 32.8 meters, the ship displaces 42,600 metric tons of water can travel about 27,800 kilometers, and sustain itself for 120 days without needing resupply. An area of more than 3,000 square meters is reserved on the vessel for nine laboratories involved in basic geology, paleomagnetism, organic geochemistry, microbiology, geophysics, drilling technology and other academic disciplines. It is expected to strengthen China's capabilities in deep-sea resources exploration and the development of key technologies and hardware, and will serve the efforts of scientists around the globe to fulfill ocean drills, said a news release from the Ministry of Natural Resources.