Union Minister of Earth Sciences has launched India’s First Manned Ocean Mission Samudrayan at Chennai.

Mission Samudrayan

• The Samudrayan project has been undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
• It will be a part of the Rs 6,000 crore Deep Ocean Mission.
• It is designed to carry 3 persons in 2.1meter diameter Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere with an operational endurance of 12hrs and systems to support emergency endurance up to 96hrs.
• It could work at a depth between 1000 and 5500 meters.

Objectives

• Samudrayan shall facilitate carrying out deep ocean exploration of the non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts.
• The mission would carry out subsea activities such as high-resolution bathymetry, biodiversity assessment, geo-scientific observation, search activities, salvage operation and engineering support.

Focus areas of the Project

• Ocean climate change advisory services
• Underwater vehicles
• Underwater robotics-related technologies
• Deep-sea mining: Exploitation of polymetallic nodules

Components of the mission

Some of the critical subsystems of the manned submersibles are:

• Development of Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere, Human support and safety system in enclosed space, low density buoyancy modules, Ballast and Trim System
• Pressure compensated batteries and propulsion system, control and communication systems and Launching and Recovery System.

Progress till date

• The preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed.
• 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 the MATSYA 6000.
• The deep-water manned submersible will be ready for trials by the second quarter of 2024.

Why need such mission?

• This manned submersible mission provides a feel of direct physical presence for researchers and has better intervention capability.
• With the advancing subsea technologies, the recent Fendouzhe manned submersible developed by China in 2020 has touched ~11000m water depths.
• With Samudrayan, India joins the elite club of nations such as USA, Russia, Japan, France and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.

Back2Basics: India and International Seabed Authority (ISA)

• The ISA, an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, allots the ‘area’ for deep-sea mining.
• India was the first country to receive the status of a ‘Pioneer Investor’ in 1987 and was given an area of about 1.5 lakh sqkm in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for nodule exploration.
• In 2002, India signed a contract with the ISA, and after a complete resource analysis of the seabed, India surrendered 50%, and the country retained an area of 75,000 sqkm.
• Further studies have helped narrow the mining area to 18,000 sqkm, the ‘First Generation Mine-site’.

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