Karnataka: Harbour trial for ‘Samudrayaan’ likely in Mar-Apr
BENGALURU: Preparations are on board to realise India’s flagship manned deep sea exploration in 2025 in a homemade, world-class, submersible ‘Matsya 6000.’
“The harbour trial for ‘Samudrayaan,’ a three-member deep sea mission that is scheduled for 2025 will be conducted sometime in March-April this year in Chennai,” National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) director GA Ramadass told this paper.
‘Samudrayaan’ is an ambitious project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and is being implemented as part of the Rs 4800 crore ‘Deep Ocean Mission’. NIOT is an autonomous society under the ministry.
“Following the harbour trial, the NIOT will plan shallow water exploration at a depth of 500 metres under the ocean this year before the final deep sea mission at 6,000 metres some time next year,” Ramadass said. The shallow water exploration is being planned in the Bay of Bengal in a steel submersible.
“The NIOT has recruited a former naval officer to pilot the Samudrayaan exploration. It is training some ocean scientists at the institute as pilots who will conduct deep sea explorations, subject to approval. In the latter half of the year, we expect the delivery of a titanium alloy human sphere, which will seat the three ocean explorers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),” said the NIOT director.
Titanium is lighter but stronger than steel, and enables the weight of deep-diving vehicles as low as possible. It requires minimum maintenance; has an extended life cycle, and has incomparable anti-corrosive properties, he explained.
Ramadass added that the other components for ‘Matsya 6000’ like the syntactic foam for the manned chamber are being imported and delivery is expected later this year. Syntactic foams, a mixture of billions of microscopic hollow glass or ceramic spheres in epoxy or plastic resin, are widely used in submarines because of their remarkable buoyancy and strength.
“Matsya 6000 will be tested and certified by DNV (world class Norwegian classification society and a recognised advisor for the maritime industry) to go down 6,000 metres inside the ocean,” he said.
‘Matsya’ will go down 6,000 metres inside the sea in the Indian Ocean for a duration of 12 hours, though it is being developed and will be tested for 96 hour endurance in case of an emergency. The vehicle will have an oxygen supply and carbon dioxide scrubbing system for 96 hours. “The submersible is being developed to withstand the sea pressure, which at 6,000 metres, is 600 bar, that is, 600 times more than the atmospheric pressure,” explained Ramadass, adding that in future, the submersible will be available to ocean scientists for research purposes.
‘Matsya’ will take three hours to go down 6,000 metres and three hours to come up, with six hours for scientific exploration of the sea.
The ‘Samudrayaan’ mission will bring India on the world map of manned deep sea explorations in indigenous vehicles after the US, Russia, France, Japan and China.