Mariana Trench Romance

The cables provided to the deep sea unmanned exploration vehicle "Kaiko" are the culmination of Fujikura's technology. They successfully reached the bottom at the deepest point in the world.

March 24, 1995. Engineers from all over the world were focused on the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench off the coast of Guam. The unmanned deep-sea exploration vehicle "KAIKO", connected by a cable developed and provided by Fujikura, was diving to the deepest point in the world, aiming to reach the bottom.

A challenge to reach uncharted territory and set a new world record. Eventually, the project members, who were waiting at a hotel in Guam, received news that the submarine had landed on the ocean floor at 10,911.40 meters, the deepest point in the world. A huge cheer went up. Everyone joined hands, embraced each other, and shared their joy. Some were so moved that they were crying. It was a moment when all the hardships had paid off in one fell swoop.

The KAIKO development project was originally started with the aim of preparing an unmanned probe capable of rescue operations in the event of an emergency involving the manned submersible research vessel "Shinkai 6500," which was completed in 1989. Since the legal pressure-resistant depth of the Shinkai 6500 is 10,050m (6,500m 1.5 + 300m) or more, the KAIKO was also developed with a maximum diving depth of 10,050m or more. The main developer was the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (currently the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, abbreviated as JAMSTEC). In December 1987, technical proposal specifications for the cable were issued to three cable manufacturers, and by the end of January 1988, each company was to submit a proposal specification based on their own technology and receive evaluation.

At the time, Fujikura had already provided tether cables for the unmanned exploration vehicle Dolphin-3K (diving capability 3,300m), so they had the main test equipment in-house and had an environment for in-house testing. In addition, they have always played a leading role in numerous undersea cable projects, and these factors, along with the content of their proposal, were taken into consideration in a comprehensive manner, resulting in the successful award. The challenge to set a new world record began.