Context:
India’s first manned deep-sea mission, Samudrayaan, has hit a timeline setback due to delays in receiving syntactic foam cladding from France. The foam is essential for providing buoyancy to the submersible MATSYA 6000, which is designed to dive 6,000 metres into the ocean. The mission is led by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
What is Samudrayaan?
- India’s first crewed submersible mission to explore the deep ocean.
- Objective: Aims to reach 6,000 metres (Hadopelagic zone), a depth accessed by only a few countries.
- Submersible: MATSYA 6000
- Lead Agency: National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai
- Governing Body: Ministry of Earth Sciences
- Three crew members will descend to the ocean floor to collect soil, rock, and mineral samples — critical for future deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules and rare metals.
