In 2012, China announced its intentions to build a mobile, nuclear-powered underwater mining station that would house a crew of 33 people for two months. The Pacific Ocean base was proposed by the China Ship Scientific Research Centre, and likely secured backing from the nation’s 863 Program, a fund known to bankroll military R&D projects. Whether this station has ties to the South China Sea platform is unclear. This week, a discovery of the nation’s blueprints for a deep sea "space station" has been revealed. The manned deep sea platform would sit 9,800 feet under disputed waters in the South China Sea, and would be a key resource in China’s offshore mining efforts, according to a Chinese Science Ministry presentation recently viewed by Bloomberg. Dozens of crew members would be able to survive underwater for up to a month at a time on the station. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/china-wants-to-build-a-deep-sea-space-station
