The Jiaolong manned submersible may undertake a deep sea dive mission in the South China Sea in 2013, a commanding officer said Monday.

The sub docked at the port of Qingdao in Shandong Province on Monday after making a record dive of 7,020 meters below sea level in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench during a 44-day test mission.

Liu Feng, field commander in chief, said a team is applying to take part in next year's mission and a proposal is under official appraisal.

He said the deep sea survey plan is aimed at obtaining first-hand data to aid in studies of the formation and evolution of the ocean basin.

Jin Jiancai, with the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association, said China is accelerating its deep sea research by setting up a national deep sea support base in Qingdao and building a new mother vessel for Jiaolong to succeed Xiangyanghong-9, which has extended its service for another 34 years.

Both projects are expected to be completed by 2015.

China plans to eventually build a deep sea station, where submersibles can dock undersea and oceanauts can stay for work, Jiaolong designer Fang Shujia said.

Cui Weicheng, deputy commander of the project and Jiaolong designer, said plans are in the works to develop another submersible that is able to dive up to 4,500 meters below sea level in the next stage of deep sea research.

"Most deep sea research can be completed by a sub with a diving capacity of 4,500 meters. It can cut operation costs by 40 percent in comparison to using Jiaolong," he said.

"Jiaolong had to complete as many as six dive operations during the Mariana dive tests, as well as deal with the undersea landscape and conduct surveys," said Xu Qinan, chief designer of Jiaolong.

Xu said the tests prove that the sub is able to operate in almost all marine environments.

China started building the Jiaolong in 2002. Built at a cost of 470 million yuan ($74 million), it conducted the first 1,000-meter dive test in 2009.

All of the sub's designs and core technologies were developed by Chinese scientists.

Jiaolong's successful tests in the Mariana Trench have allowed China to join the ranks of countries active in deep sea research. The US, Japan, France and Russia lead others in the development of deep sea exploration technologies, each possessing their own submersibles and support bases.

Xinhua