Deep Ocean mission (informally known as ''Samudrayaan'' program, meaning "Sea Craft" in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

) is an Indian initiative to undertake the deep ocean exploration focused on India's exclusive economic zones and continental shelf. The program will consist of various crewed and uncrewed

submersibles A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of in ...

exploring the sea bed. One of the primary aims of the mission is to explore and extract

polymetallic nodules 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. As nodules can be found in vast quantities, and contain valuable metals, de ...

, which are composed of

minerals In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

and

iron hydroxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of wh ...

. The metals can used in the manufacturing of

electronic devices The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

smartphones A smartphone is a Mobile device, portable computer device that combines Mobile phone, mobile telephone and Mobile computing, computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities ...

batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

and

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

. India has been allocated a site in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the

International Seabed Authority The International Seabed Authority (ISA) (french: Autorité internationale des fonds marins) is a Kingston, Jamaica-based intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of ...

for the purposes of exploring for and extracting polymetallic nodules on the seabed. The estimated amount of polymetallic nodules in the given area is about 380 million tonnes, containing 4.7 million tonnes of nickel, 4.29 million tonnes of copper and 0.55 million tonnes of cobalt and 92.59 million tonnes of manganese. The approximate cost of the programme will be Rs. 4077 crore for a of 5 year period and this will be implemented in a phase-wise process. The first phase of the project is from 2021 to 2024. Under its sub-project informally dubbed ''Samudrayaan'', India has aims to send three people into deep sea up to a depth of in Indian ocean in an indigenous deep sea

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of in ...

having an endurance of 72 hours.

History

The study of the ocean in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

began when the Government sponsored the program on

(PMN) initiated at CSIR-NIO with the collection of the first nodule sample from

Arabian sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

on board the first research vessel Gaveshani on 26 January 1981. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous international organisation established under the 1982

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 ...

, allotted the ‘area’ for deep-sea mining. India was the first country to receive the status of a 'Pioneer Investor' in 1987 and was given an area of about 1.5 lakh sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) for nodule exploration. This was based on the extensive survey carried out by the scientists of CSIR-NIO on several research ships leading to the allocation of an area of to the country with exclusive right under the UN law of the sea. India was the first country in the world, to have sponsored the exploration of deep sea mineral viz polymetallic nodules, in the central Indian Ocean basin in 1987. In 2002, India signed a contract with the ISA and after complete resource analysis of the seabed 50% was surrendered and the country retained an area of 75,000 sq km. Further studies have helped narrow the mining area to 18,000 sq km which will be the ‘First Generation Mine-site’.

Background

India has an Exclusive Economic zone allocated which is unexplored and unutilised. Exclusive Economic zones are boundaries prescribed by the United nations Convention on the law of the sea which give the rights to a state regarding the exploration and use of marine resources. India has been allocated a site of in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

(ISA) for the exploitation of polymetallic nodules (PMN) which is an amalgamation of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

and manganese hydroxide. It has been estimated that 380 million metric tonnes of PMN are available at the bottom of the seas in the central Indian Ocean. It is estimated that 10% of recovery of that can meet India's energy requirement for next 100 years.

Goal and objectives

The centre has drawn up a five-year plan, with a cost of ₹8000 crore, to mine, research and study about the ocean floor. The objectives of the plan include research work that can result in formation of a roadmap on climate change and help in developing a desalination plant powered by tidal energy. One of the key projects which can enable the above said research is the creation of a submersible vehicle that can explore depths of at least .

Progress made

Indian Space Research Organisation developed the design of a crewed submersible capsule capable of travelling 6,000 m deep for the mission. The development was announced on the sidelines of the silver jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Ocean Technology. A deep-submergence vehicle named

Matsya 6000 Matsya 6000 (Sanskrit, ) is an Indian crewed deep-submergence vehicle intended to be utilised for deep-sea exploration of rare minerals under the Deep Ocean mission. Currently under development, the vehicle would consist of a titanium alloy sphere ...

is under development. The first uncrewed trial of the vehicle was conducted on 27 October 2021 where the 'personnel sphere' was lowered up to a depth of 600 m, off the coast of

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

. The trial was successful and received the certification for further development. Following the success of the trial, the "Samudrayaan" program was formally launched on 29 October 2021.

References

{{Reflist *Jacob Koshy (29 July 201
govt-plans-isro-like-ocean-mission
The Hindu *http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=163263 *4 June 201

new United India news 2018 establishments in India Cobalt minerals Copper minerals Government of India Manganese minerals Nickel minerals Ocean exploration Underwater mining

History

Background

Goal and objectives

Progress made

See also

References