Samudrayan

Samudrayan

Subject – Defence and Security

Context – India’s first manned ocean mission ‘Samudrayan’ launched

Concept –

• India’s first manned ocean mission ‘Samudrayan’ was launched and with this the nation joined an elite club of nations having such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.
  • India joins elite club of select nations USA, Russia, Japan, France & China having such underwater vehicles.
• Ministry – Ministry of Earth Sciences
• Objective-deep Ocean exploration for rare minerals.
  • The niche technology facilitates carrying out deep ocean exploration of non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts.
• Matsya 6000 under Samudrayan initiative is capable of carrying three human beings in titanium alloy personnel sphere of 2.1 metre diameter enclosed space with an endurance of 12 hours and an additional 96 hours in case of emergency situation.
  • Matsya 6000, the deep sea vehicle, will be ready for qualification trials by December 2024.
• The manned submersible can take three scientists to ocean depths to explore oceans and to survey the ocean bed and collect the data and samples.
• By the end of 2022 or 2023, the shallow water (500 metres) phase is expected to happen which would be followed by more deeper initiatives.
• The deep sea vehicle shall be maneuvered at deep sea floor with six degree freedom using battery powered propulsion system for 4 hours at 6000 metre depth.
• System design, concept of operation, subcomponents functionality and integrity, emergency rescue, failure mode analysis are reviewed and certified as per the rules of International Association of Classification and Certification Society for man-rated usage of manned submersible at a depth of 6000 metres.
• Ahead of this launch, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had developed a ‘personnel sphere,’ built of mild steel and tested it as an unmanned trial, two days back, using the Ocean Research Vessel Sagar Nidhi, in Bay of Bengal.