New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: India on Friday had launched its first manned ocean Mission "Samudrayan", joining the elite club of six other countries "to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities". It was launched by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Tamil Nadu's Chennai.
Dr Singh said mission Samudrayan will give India a 'sense of esteem' that it is doing something "which is no less than any other country of the world". He said that it will help India explore the ocean depths and study non-living resources like polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts.
"What we are actually contributing is not only confined to the realms of scientific work, it is actually contributing to building of India's national esteem," Dr Singh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. "Very soon, maybe in a year or two, we have a man going deep into the ocean, and I was telling the other day to some of the scientists from ISRO that it was a strange coincidence because Gaganyaan has got delayed."
What is Mission Samudrayan?
Mission Samudrayan is a Rs 6,000 crore manned ocean project by India to study ocean depths. With Mission Samudrayan, India has joined the elite group of the United States (US), Russia, Japan, France and China "to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities".
In a press release, the Centre said under Mission Samudrayan, deep-sea vehicle Matsya 6000 will carry three people in titanium alloy personnel sphere of 2.1-metre diameter enclosed space with an endurance of 12 hours and an additional 96 hours in case of emergency.
The Centre said that Matsya 6000 can be manoeuvred at deep seafloor with six-degree freedom using a battery-powered propulsion system for 4 hours at 6000-metre depth.
"Indigenous efforts are underway at NIOT towards design of the vehicle and some of the subsystems are realized from Indian as well as from global market towards its special usage in high-pressure deep-sea environment," it said.
"Basically this vehicle is a platform to carry any devices, sensors etc to deep-sea for doing experiments or observations in the presence of a human being," it noted.
"System design, concept of operation, subcomponents functionality and integrity, emergency rescue, failure mode analysis are reviewed and certified as per the rules of the International Association of Classification and Certification Society for man-rated usage of manned submersible at a depth of 6000 metres," it added.