Deep Ocean Mission
Approved on:
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ (MoES) proposal for a “Deep Ocean Mission” on June 16, 2021.
Ministry involved :
- The scheme is under control of ministry of earth sciences
- Minister of earth science – Dr. Jitendra Singh (constituency -Udhamur, J &K)
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 6,000Â m (20,000Â ft).
About the mission :
- Deep Ocean missionis an Indian initiative to undertake the deep ocean exploration focused on India’s exclusive economic zones and continental shelf.
- The program consist of various manned and unmanned submersibles exploring the sea bed.
- The primary aim of the mission is to explore and extract polymetallic nodules which are composed of minerals like manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and iron hydroxide.
- The metals are useful in manufacturing of electronic devices, smartphones, batteries and solar panels.
- India has been allocated a site of 75,000 km2(29,000 sq mi) in the Central Indian Ocean Basin by the International Seabed Authority for exploration of polymetallic nodules from seabed.
- The estimated amount of polymetallic nodules in 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 Deep Ocean Mission consists of the following six major components:
- Development of Technologies for Deep Sea Mining, and Manned Submersible: A manned submersible will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean with suite of scientific sensors and tools. Only a very few countries have acquired this capability. An Integrated Mining System will be also developed for mining Polymetallic Nodules from 6000 m depth in the central Indian Ocean. The exploration studies of minerals will pave way for the commercial exploitation in the near future, as and when commercial exploitation code is evolved by the International Seabed Authority, an UN organization. This component will help the Blue Economy priority area of exploring and harnessing of deep sea minerals and energy.
- Development of Ocean Climate Change Advisory Services: A suite of observations and models will be developed to understand and provide future projections of important climate variables on seasonal to decadal time scales under this proof of concept component. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of coastal tourism.
- Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity: Bio-prospecting of deep sea flora and fauna including microbes and studies on sustainable utilization of deep sea bio-resources will be the main focus. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of Marine Fisheries and allied services.
- Deep Ocean Survey and Exploration: The primary objective of this component is to explore and identify potential sites of multi-metal Hydrothermal Sulphides mineralization along the Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges. This component will additionally support the Blue Economy priority area of deep sea exploration of ocean resources.
- Energy and freshwater from the Ocean: Studies and detailed engineering design for offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) powered desalination plant are envisaged in this proof of concept proposal. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of off-shore energy development.
- Advanced Marine Station for Ocean Biology. This component is aimed as development of human capacity and enterprise in ocean biology and engineering. This component will translate research into industrial application and product development through on-site business incubator facilities. This component will support the Blue Economy priority area of Marine Biology, Blue trade and Blue manufacturing.
Progress till now:
- Indian Space Research Organisation developed the design of a manned 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 is under development.
- First unmanned trail of the vehicle was conducted on 27 October 2021 where the ‘personnel sphere’ was lowered upto a depth of 600 m, off the coast of Chennai.
- 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.
Corpus :
- The estimated cost of the Missionwill be Rs. 4077 crore for a period of 5 years to be implemented in a phase-wise manner. The estimated cost for the first phase for the 3 years (2021-2024) would be Rs.2823.4 crore.
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