After the impressive achievements of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission and the Aditya L1 mission, which is currently on its way to study the Sun, India is now preparing for an innovative endeavor called the ‘Samudrayaan Mission.’ This groundbreaking mission aims to send three astronauts to an extraordinary depth of 6 kilometers beneath the ocean surface, marking India’s inaugural manned deep-sea exploration. Kiren Rijiju, the Union Minister of Earth Sciences, recently paid a visit to the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and shared images of ‘MATSYA 6000,’ a submersible vehicle developed locally at NIOT in Chennai under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, specifically designed for the Samudrayaan mission
What is Samudrayaan?
Samudrayaan Mission is aimed to develop a self propelled manned submersible to carry 3 human beings to a water depth of 6000 meters in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools for deep ocean exploration. It has an endurance of 12 hours of operational period and 96 hours in case of emergency.
The manned submersible will allow scientific personnel to observe and understand unexplored deep sea areas by direct interventions. Further, it will enhance the capability for deep sea man rated vehicle development.
The projected timeline is five years for the period 2020-2021 to 2025-2026.
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, an autonomous institute under MoES, has developed 6000m depth rated Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and various other underwater instruments such as Autonomous Coring System (ACS), Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and Deep Sea Mining System (DSM) for the exploration of deep sea. This information was given by the Minister of State (I/C) for M/o Earth Sciences and M/o Science & Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha in 2022.
Kiren Rijiju (Minister of Earth Sciences, India) said in a statement that the ‘Samudrayaan Mission’ will not disturb the ocean ecosystem.