What is India's Samudrayaan Project? All about the 'Deep Ocean Mission' launched by Centre

Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh launched India's first manned ocean mission, Samudrayaan, at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai on October 29, 2021. With the commencement of the Unique Ocean Mission, India joined the elite group of countries that have specialist technology and vehicles to conduct subsea missions, including the United States, Russia, France, Japan, and China.

Samudrayaan Mission will open up greater opportunities for growth in the areas of clean energy, drinking water, and the blue economy.

What is Samudrayaan Mission?

The Samudrayaan mission is India's first manned ocean mission, with the goal of sending men deep into the ocean in a submersible vehicle for deep-ocean exploration and rare mineral mining. The 200-crore Samudrayaan Mission will send three people to a depth of 6000 metres in the sea in a manned submersible vehicle called MATSYA 6000 for deep underwater studies. Submarines have a maximum depth of roughly 200 metres.

The Samudrayaan mission was announced by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in tandem with ISRO's Gaganyaan mission, which seeks to launch a manned mission into space by 2022. The Samudrayaan Mission was announced by the NIOT in 2019, with a launch date of 2021-22.

The Rs 6000-crore Samudrayaan mission is part of the Deep Ocean Mission. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Ministry of Earth Sciences' (MoES) proposal for a "Deep Ocean Mission" on June 16, 2021. The Deep Ocean Mission seeks to investigate the deep ocean for resources, develop deep-sea technology for long-term ocean resource management, and support the Indian government's Blue Economy Initiatives.

"Personnel Sphere of 2.1m diameter to be used as a crew module up to 500 m water depth has been developed using mild steel and tested up to 600 m water depth in the Bay of Bengal using the research Vessel Sagar Nidhi during October, 2021," according to Ministry of Earth Science.

Samudrayaan Mission: Key Points

• The Samudrayaan Mission's manned submersible vehicle MATSYA 6000 will help the Ministry of Earth Sciences, MoES, conduct deep-ocean exploration for resources such as gas hydrates, polymetallic manganese nodules, hydro-thermal sulphides, and cobalt crusts, which are found at depths of 1000 to 5500 metres. 
• Under the Deep Ocean Mission, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) constructed the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 with a depth capacity of 6000 metres. 
• The submersible was designed with 12-hour operational endurance and emergency endurance systems that can last up to 96 hours.
• The MATSYA 6000 submersible vehicle can crawl for 72 hours on the seabed at a depth of 6 km. At a depth of 6000 metres, the submersible will crawl at the deep bottom with 6-degree freedom utilising a battery-powered propulsion system for 4 hours.

Image:  PTI/PIB