SAMUDRAYAAN MISSION

The Deep  Ocean  Mission  (DOM) is India’s ambitious quest to explore and harness the depths of the ocean. As part of this initiative, India will,  for  the  first  time, embark on a journey to a depth of 6,000 metres in the ocean using an indigenously developed submersible with a three-member crew. The mission will require technologies to access and transport tonnes of  valuable minerals from  the ocean- bed in an environmentally safe manner.

What is Samudrayaan Mission?

Deep Ocean Mission will be a mission mode project to support the Blue Economy Initiatives of the Government of India. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be the nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional ambitious mission. The aim of Deep Ocean Mission is to help India in achieving target of over Rs. 100 billion “Blue Economy” through its ocean resources.

Major Objectives of Deep Ocean Mission –

• To address issues arising from long term changes in the ocean due to climate change
• To develop technologies for deep-sea mission of living (biodiversity) and non- living (minerals) resources
• To develop underwater vehicles and underwater robotics
• To provide ocean climate change advisory services
• To identify technological innovations and conservation methods for sustainable utilization of marine bioresources
• To develop offshore based desalination techniques
• To develop renewable energy generation techniques
• To provide clean drinking water and explore the avenues of desalination of water as well as extracting minerals from the ocean belt.

India’s First and Unique Manned Ocean Mission, Samudrayan –

• It was launched on 29 October 2021 from Chennai.

• With this step India joined the elite club of nations such as USA, Russia, Japan, France and China in having such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.

• It will facilitate MoES in carrying out deep ocean exploration of the nonliving resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts, located at a depth between 1000 and 5500 metres.

• Preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed and realization of vehicle has with various organizations including  Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) roped-in to support the development.

• National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous Institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had developed and tested a ‘personnel sphere’ (Matsya 6000) for a manned submersible system for 500 metre water depth rating.

• Matsya 6000 is India’s flagship deep-ocean human submersible that aims to reach the ocean bed at a depth of 6000 metres in the central Indian Ocean in Matsya 6000.

• Sea trials of 500 metre rated shallow water version of the manned submersible are expected to take place in the last quarter of 2022 and MATSYA 6000 will be ready for trials by the second quarter of 2024.