Strengthen the support and guarantee system for deep-sea polar exploration. ——Taken from the 15th Five Year Plan proposal for September 2025, at 85 degrees north latitude in the Arctic Ocean. The sea breeze howls, and outside the porthole are endless floating ice. As a marine geological researcher who has been dealing with rocks for more than 20 years, I have come to such a high latitude polar region for the first time. Our destination for this trip is not the ice, but the abyss over 5000 meters beneath the ice. As the manned submersible I was riding on, the "Striver," slowly sank into the icy sea, and the light outside the porthole was gradually engulfed by darkness, my inner excitement overwhelmed my fear of the unknown. This 98 day Arctic scientific expedition, the team relied on China's first independently designed and built icebreaking research vessel, "Exploration 3," to complete a continuous manned deep-sea dive in a dense ice area on the Mid Atlantic Ridge, where sea ice coverage exceeds 80%. The Mid Atlantic Ridge, located in the Arctic, is one of the slowest spreading areas on Earth, known as the "super slow spreading ridge", separating less than 20 millimeters to both sides each year. Here lies the secret of the upwelling of material from the Earth's deep mantle, which is the "key puzzle" for interpreting the Earth's evolutionary history. In the past, thick sea ice was a natural barrier for us to explore here. In the Arctic, a major challenge we face is how to accurately lift submersibles out of ice crevices. In conventional waters, after completing the dive, the submersible can be retrieved by the mother ship once it surfaces; But in the Arctic, there is thick sea ice floating on the surface of the sea, which constantly drifts and squeezes with the ocean currents. Once a submersible floats up and its head is blocked by the ice, the consequences are unimaginable. I remember the first time we dived for recovery, we anxiously searched for a suitable outlet on the mother ship and spent more than 3 hours. For deep diving, the power of the submersible is the lifeline, and every minute of delay increases the risk. Later, the young scientific research team proposed a new plan: since "finding submarines with boats" was not feasible, then switch to "finding submarines with boats". The mother ship breaks through the ice to open up the water area, and through advanced underwater acoustic communication systems, guides the underwater submersible to accurately track the mother ship's position, achieving safe ascent from the ice crevice. This mobile ice diving mode of "ship submarine collaboration" in dense ice areas helps us to operate more safely. In the 418th and 421st dives, we will use a robotic arm to collect basalt samples, which can help us understand how magma deep in the mantle shapes the underwater world. In order to reduce the inconvenience of using the restroom inside the cabin, we often have to control our diet and water intake before diving and work for 9 hours in a small cabin. But in the deep sea, seeing the basaltic lava gushing out from the depths of the earth through the lights of the submersible, we feel that all the hard work is worth it! This scientific expedition, we experienced a long polar day and also encountered a super storm of up to 13 levels at sea. For over 40 days, we were in a state of complete lack of network signal. But we insist on running internal publications and holding academic seminars, and everyone's hearts seem to be burning with a fire, which is the purest love for science. In addition, from the icebreaking capability of the "Exploration 3" to the underwater navigation of the "Striver", the "hard core strength" of domestically produced equipment has also helped us achieve our dreams. Returning to the laboratory in Sanya, looking at the rock samples from the deep sea of the Arctic, I knew that the story of the seabed was far from over. Deep sea research requires interdisciplinary collaboration and multi unit cooperation. Looking forward to the 15th Five Year Plan, we look forward to establishing a more efficient communication and sharing mechanism, allowing more researchers to participate and jointly utilize precious polar samples and data to weave a global abyssal scientific exploration network. (The author is a researcher of the Institute of Deep Sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) ■ The reporter wrote that breaking the ice and sailing farther into the deep blue sea and the polar region, these two words bring a mysterious and romantic feeling to ordinary people. But for frontline researchers, it means boredom and hardship: working for 9 hours in a small submersible cabin, even afraid to drink too much water for work; Working on the aft deck at temperatures below minus ten degrees Celsius, the sea breeze blows on my face like a knife cutting pain; In storms up to level 13, they were so seasick that they couldn't stand... enduring these difficulties, what exactly supported them to rush to Deep Blue time and time again? The answer given by Tian Liyan is simple: "If you don't love it, you won't be able to persevere." Scientific research requires wholehearted dedication, which stems from curiosity about the unknown and the joy of solving problems and discovering new knowledge. Behind the repeated challenges to the 'impossible' lies the relay of love and persistence from generation to generation of scientific researchers. Arctic scientific expedition is not only a technological breakthrough, but also a personal breakthrough for humans. Faced with an unknown dense ice zone, this scientific research team, with an average age of less than 35 years old, has achieved growth through practical experience, from having no precedent and exploring experience at the beginning to calmly diving day by day. Chinese deep-sea researchers, with the simplest passion, have chiseled open the ice layer at the northernmost end of the Earth, opening a new window for exploring the mysteries of the deep Earth. Facing the "15th Five Year Plan", we have reason to believe that this passion will help China's deep-sea scientific research sail further into the deep blue. Extended reading: How advanced equipment can solve the problem of polar deep-sea diving. The Arctic sea area is covered by sea ice all year round, and the environment is extremely harsh. Arctic deep-sea diving tests the "polar adaptability" of the entire equipment system. In this scientific expedition, the "Exploration 3" is China's first independently designed and built manned deep-sea diving operation mother ship, about 104 meters long, with a displacement of about 10000 tons, and has the ability to break ice in both directions. It can break through a 1.2-meter-thick ice layer at a speed of 2 knots, opening up an operation window for the submersible; As a technologically advanced 10000 meter manned submersible, the "Striver" has undergone a series of polar adaptation modifications and is now capable of precise operation in low-temperature and satellite signal free environments. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, China's deep-sea scientific and technological equipment developed rapidly. The scientific research team has established the manned deep-sea diving operation regulations for the "Striver" in extreme polar environments, creating a new mobile ice diving mode of "ship submarine collaboration" in dense ice areas, achieving precise guidance and safe ascent, making China the only country in the world to conduct continuous manned deep-sea diving in the Arctic dense sea ice area. The scientific expedition team has collected a batch of precious water bodies, sediments, rocks, and biological samples, which will provide important scientific support for in-depth research on rapid climate change, polar life evolution, and adaptation mechanisms in the Arctic. (New Society)