Samudrayaan project for deep ocean exploration launched

Last Updated01/11/2021

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology launched the Samudrayaan project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for deep ocean exploration for rare minerals.
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.

It was approved in June 2021 by the (MoES).
It aims to explore the deep ocean for resources, develop deep-sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources, and support the Blue Economy Initiatives of the Indian Government.
The cost of the Mission has been estimated at Rs. 4,077 crore over a five-year period and will be implemented in phases.

It is India’s first unique manned ocean mission that aims to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for deep-ocean exploration and mining of rare minerals.
It will send three persons in a manned submersible vehicle MATSYA 6000 to a depth of 6000 metres into the sea for deep underwater studies.
It is a part of the Rs 6000-crores Deep Ocean Mission.

It is an indigenously developed manned submersible vehicle.
It will facilitate the MoES in conducting deep ocean exploration of resources such as gas hydrates, polymetallic manganese nodules, hydro-thermal sulfides, and cobalt crusts which are located at an approximate depth between 1000 and 5500 metres.
Polymetallic nodules, also called manganese nodules, are mineral concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core.