China's 43rd Antarctic expedition set out on November 7. According to Huanqiu, citing the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Xuelong, Xuelong 2 and Dayang vessels are involved, with more than 600 people from over 100 institutions, and a return is expected in April 2027.
Huanqiu reports that the ministry set five priority tasks. The first is stations and logistics: finishing construction and acceptance of Qinling Station, surveying support facilities for a planned station in Marie Byrd Land, and starting preparatory work to upgrade the Great Wall and Zhongshan stations.
광고 문의 · 300×250Ocean surveys and frontier science
The second is multidisciplinary surveying. Long-term monitoring will continue around the Antarctic Peninsula, the Cosmonauts Sea, Prydz Bay, the Ross Sea and the Amundsen Sea, using moored instruments, CTD profilers, grab samplers, biological trawls and automated monitors to study how climate change affects the Southern Ocean ecosystem.
The third is frontier research. A national project to drill into the Qilin subglacial lake continues, taking samples in place through the ice, while a shared voyage funded by the National Natural Science Foundation studies the end of plate subduction in the Scotia Sea and its resource effects.
Domestic equipment and international cooperation
The fourth is testing home-built equipment, including the AR500 large unmanned helicopter, the THT550 tracked ice-sheet tractor, a third-generation Snow Leopard 6x6 vehicle and an inland pressurized building complex, plus snow-compaction gear and a mobile modular airfield prototype.
The fifth is international cooperation. China will work with Norway, Chile and Bulgaria on ice sheet, geology and snow-and-ice research, invite researchers from Thailand, France, Belgium, Portugal, Hong Kong and Macau, and continue logistics cooperation with the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Italy and South Africa. The departure port and detailed itinerary were not given in the report we reviewed and cannot be confirmed.
