Samurdyaan Project For Deep Sea Exploration Launched After Successful Trial

On Friday, India's first manned ocean mission "Samudrayan" was launched in Chennai by Union Minister Jitendra Singh. With this mission, India has joined an elite club of nations having such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.

Ahead of this launch, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had developed a 'personnel sphere,' made up of mild steel and tested it as an unmanned trial, two days back, using the Ocean Research Vessel Sagar Nidhi, in the Bay of Bengal.

The director of NIOT, G. A. Ramadass, said, that the deep-sea vehicle Matsya 6000 under the Samudrayaan project is launched with the objective send humans underwater for deep-sea exploration. He also informed that it is a five-year project that estimates upto ₹350 crore.

ISRO's Mission By 2023

"This trial was a precursor and the sphere was lowered upto a depth of 600 metres, off Chennai coast. Now that we have received certification for this trial, we will work on the next one wherein a sphere of 2.1 diameter will be built in which three humans can sit and be sent off to a depth of 6,000 metres," he said as quoted by The Hindu.

Ramadass shared that the manned-submersible will be ready for qualification trials by December 2024. At the same time, the Union minister wished the nation could set a record by sending a man to the deep ocean and deep space simultaneously.

ISRO is even planning for Gaganyaan, a manned space mission, by early 2023. NIOT officials also added that final MATSYA 6000 will be capable of carrying three crew members with an endurance of 12 hours and an additional 96 hours in case of emergency.

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