12-Jan-2023: Three persons to be send 6000 meter below sea level for exploration
As a part of Samudrayaan Mission undertaken by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, India aims to send three persons to 6000 meters below sea level.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that, the mission heralds India’s ushering into an era of “Blue Economy” which is going to play a major part in building India’s overall economy during the years to come. A vehicle called MATSYA will carry three persons to a depth of 6000 meters for exploration of deep-sea resources like minerals. This mission is expected to be realized in the next three years.
MATSYA 6000 is being designed and developed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It has an endurance of 12 hours under normal operation and 96 hours in case of emergency for human safety.
The design of the vehicle is completed and realization of various components of the vehicle is in progress. Manned submersible facilitates the direct observation by the human in deep ocean in exploring mineral resources rich in nickel, cobalt, rare earths, manganese etc. and collection of samples, which can be used for analysis.
Apart from the scientific research and technological empowerment as the benefits, this mission has immediate spin-offs in the form of underwater engineering innovations in asset inspection, tourism and promotion of ocean literacy.
Development of 6000 m depth rated Integrated Mining Machine and unmanned vehicles (tethered and automated) to explore deep sea resources and biodiversity assessment.
The Centre had approved the Deep Ocean Mission at a total budget of ₹4,077 crore for five years. The estimated cost for the first phase for the three years (2021-2024) is ₹2,823.4 crore.
India has a unique maritime position, a 7517 km long coastline, which is home to nine coastal states and 1,382 islands. The mission aims to boost the central government’s vision of ‘New India’ that highlights the blue economy as one of the ten core dimensions of growth.
28-Jul-2022: Samudrayaan Mission
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.
16-Dec-2021: Samudrayaan Project
Under the Deep Ocean Mission launched by the Government of India, a manned scientific submersible has been proposed to be developed for deep ocean exploration. The project is named as Samudrayaan. National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous Institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, had developed and tested a 'personnel sphere’ for a manned submersible system for 500 metre water depth rating.
Personnel Sphere of 2.1m diameter to be used as a crew module up to 500 m water depth has been developed using mild steel and tested up to 600 m water depth in the Bay of Bengal using the research Vessel Sagar Nidhi during October, 2021.
One Titanium alloy personnel sphere for manned submersible system for 6000 metre water depth rating, is under development in association with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram.
29-Oct-2021: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh launches India’s First and Unique Manned Ocean Mission Samudrayaan at Chennai
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today launched India’s First Manned Ocean Mission Samudrayaan at Chennai. He said, with the launch of this Unique Ocean Mission, 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.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, this niche technology shall facilitate Ministry of Earth Sciences, MoES in carrying out deep ocean exploration of the non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal Sulphides and cobalt crusts, located at a depth between 1000 and 5500 meters. He said, the preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed and realization of vehicle is started with various organization including ISRO, IITM and DRDO roped-in to support the development.
The Minister informed that 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. He said, the advancing technologies in metallurgy, energy storage, underwater navigation and manufacturing facilities provides opportunity for developing more efficient, reliable and safe manned submersible.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that the underwater vehicles are essential for carrying out subsea activities such as high resolution bathymetry, biodiversity assessment, geo-scientific observation, search activities, salvage operation and engineering support. He said, even though unmanned underwater vehicles have improved manoeuvering and excellent vision systems resembling direct observation, manned submersible 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, the Minister added.
MoES officials explained that based on the experience gained over two decades in the development of unmanned robotic vehicles and systems for 6000 m operational capability, MoES-NIOT is indigenously developing a manned submersible with a depth capability of 6000 meters under the aegis of Deep Ocean Mission. The manned submersible is designed to carry three persons in 2.1 meter diameter Titanium Alloy Personnel Sphere with an operational endurance of 12h and systems to support emergency endurance up to 96h.
Some of the critical subsystems of the manned submersibles are development of Ti 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. 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 meters.
2-Sep-2019: India to undertake deep ocean mining with ‘Samudrayaan’ project.
It is a pilot project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for deep ocean mining for rare minerals. It proposes to send men into the deep sea in a submersible vehicle for ocean studies.
The project is expected to become a reality by 2021-22. The project has been undertaken by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
If the ‘Samudrayaan’ project is successful, India will join the league of developed nations in the exploration of minerals from oceans. India could be the first developing country to undertake such a project.
Polymetallic nodules (also known as manganese nodules) are potato-shaped, largely porous nodules found in abundance carpeting the sea floor of world oceans in deep sea. Besides manganese and iron, they contain nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, vanadium, titanium, of which nickel, cobalt and copper are considered to be of economic and strategic importance.
It is envisaged that 10% of recovery of that large reserve can meet the energy requirement of India for the next 100 years. It has been estimated that 380 million metric tonnes of polymetallic nodules are available at the bottom of the seas in the Central Indian Ocean.