Samudrayaan Mission:
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has launched India’s first manned ocean mission “Samudrayaan” in Chennai.
- With this Unique Ocean Mission, India joined the elite club of nations such as the US, Russia, France, Japan, and China to have niche technology and vehicles to carry out subsea activities.
- 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. Submarines go only about 200 metres.
- It is a part of the Rs 6000-crores Deep Ocean Mission.
Deep Ocean Mission:
- 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.
MATSYA 6000:
- 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.
