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After a successful mission to Moon, Indian scientists are preparing, under project Samudrayaan, to send three people 6,000 metres underwater in an indigenously made submersible to look for precious metals and minerals such as cobalt, nickel and manganese.
The submersible called Matsya 6000, in the making for nearly two years, will undergo its first sea trials in the Bay of Bengal off the Chennai coast in early 2024. Scientists are taking a closer look at its design after the Titan imploded while taking tourists to the Titanic wreckage in the north Atlantic Ocean in June 2023.
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) scientists, who are developing Matsya 6000, reviewed the design, materials, testing, certification, redundancy and standard operating procedures.
“Samudrayaan mission is underway as part of the Deep Ocean Mission. We will be conducting sea trials at 500 metres depth in the first quarter of 2024,” said M Ravichandran, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. The mission is expected to be realised by 2026. Only the US, Russia, Japan, France and China have developed manned submersible.
Besides looking for nickel, cobalt, manganese, hydrothermal sulphides and gas hydrates, Matsya 6000 will investigate the chemosynthetic biodiversity in hydrothermal vents and low temperature methane seeps in the ocean.
NIOT director G A Ramadass said they have designed and developed a 2.1m diameter sphere for Matsya 6000 to carry three people. The sphere will be made of 80mm-thick titanium alloy to withstand 600 bar pressure (600 times greater than the pressure at sea level) at 6,000 metres depth. The vehicle is designed to operate for 12 to 16 hours at a stretch, but the oxygen supply will be available for 96 hours.
“Except for the sphere, we have redundancy for everything. Sometimes double, sometimes triple redundancy. An official sea trial will be certified, and we have gone with DNV-GL for certification. We will also follow standard operating procedure such as deploying the submersible from a ship, which will remain on the surface right above the submersible for easy communication with the underwater vehicle,” the NIOT director said.
The submersible called Matsya 6000, in the making for nearly two years, will undergo its first sea trials in the Bay of Bengal off the Chennai coast in early 2024. Scientists are taking a closer look at its design after the Titan imploded while taking tourists to the Titanic wreckage in the north Atlantic Ocean in June 2023.
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) scientists, who are developing Matsya 6000, reviewed the design, materials, testing, certification, redundancy and standard operating procedures.
“Samudrayaan mission is underway as part of the Deep Ocean Mission. We will be conducting sea trials at 500 metres depth in the first quarter of 2024,” said M Ravichandran, secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences. The mission is expected to be realised by 2026. Only the US, Russia, Japan, France and China have developed manned submersible.
Besides looking for nickel, cobalt, manganese, hydrothermal sulphides and gas hydrates, Matsya 6000 will investigate the chemosynthetic biodiversity in hydrothermal vents and low temperature methane seeps in the ocean.
NIOT director G A Ramadass said they have designed and developed a 2.1m diameter sphere for Matsya 6000 to carry three people. The sphere will be made of 80mm-thick titanium alloy to withstand 600 bar pressure (600 times greater than the pressure at sea level) at 6,000 metres depth. The vehicle is designed to operate for 12 to 16 hours at a stretch, but the oxygen supply will be available for 96 hours.
“Except for the sphere, we have redundancy for everything. Sometimes double, sometimes triple redundancy. An official sea trial will be certified, and we have gone with DNV-GL for certification. We will also follow standard operating procedure such as deploying the submersible from a ship, which will remain on the surface right above the submersible for easy communication with the underwater vehicle,” the NIOT director said.
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