DSV Shinkai 6500

Career	Japan
Name:	Shinkai 6500
In service:	1989
General characteristics
Type:	Deep-submergence vehicle
Length:	9.5 m (31 ft)
Beam:	2.7 m (8.9 ft)
Draft:	3.2 m (10 ft)
Installed power:	electric motor
Speed:	2.5kn
Endurance:	129h
Test depth:	6,500 m (21,300 ft)
Complement:	3

Shinkai 6500 front view

The Shinkai 6500 (しんかい) is a manned research submersible that can dive up to a depth of 6,500 m. It was completed in 1990 and has the greatest depth range of any manned research vehicle in the world. The only manned expedition to have gone deeper was the dive of the Trieste bathyscaphe in 1960. However, the vessel could not navigate along the bottom of the sea bed. The Shinkai 6500 is owned and run by JAMSTEC (Japanese Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology) and it is launched from the Yokosuka.

Two pilots and one researcher operate within a 73.5 mm thick titanium pressure hull with an internal diameter of 2.0 m. Buoyancy is provided by syntactic foam.

Three 14 cm methacrylate resin view ports are arranged at the front and on each side of the vehicle.

References

JAMSTEC Shinkai 6500 page