BENGALURU: ‘Samudrayaan’ mission test pilot and former Naval officer Jatinder Pal Singh (38) has his eyes set on creating a world record in solo deep diving in the Mariana Trench -- the deepest oceanic trench on the Earth, located in the Pacific Ocean. Singh is the first Indian to have dived deepest into the ocean (North Atlantic) at 5003 metres -- maximum so far by an Indian -- on August 6 as the test pilot of ‘Samudrayaan’.
A project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), ‘Samudrayaan’ will be the first manned deep sea venture, scheduled for 2027 in ‘Matsya 6000’, an indigenous submersible developed by the NIOT. The hull or human sphere of ‘Matsya’ is being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The manned ocean expedition is being implemented as part of the Rs 4800-crore ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ (DOM) by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. NIOT is an autonomous society under the MoES.
Singh (38), from Tanda village in Akhnoor in Jammu & Kashmir, hails from a defence background. He joined the NIOT in January 2024 as a test pilot of ‘Matsya 6000’. He, along with four other ocean scientists from the Chennai institute, were sent to France this month to participate in deep-ocean human scientific expeditions onboard the submersible NAUTILE developed by the French marine institute IFREMER.
Singh and Ramesh Raju, deputy project director, ‘Matsya 6000’, NIOT, took the deep dive in the Atlantic in preparation for ‘Samudrayaan’ on August 5 and 6. Raju went up to 4025 metres and Singh dived up to 5003 metres the next day. Both, in the company of a NAUTILE pilot and co-pilot.
Narrating the around 12-hour-long deep sea exploration in the Atlantic Ocean, where the two Indian aquanauts hoisted the Tricolour in the depths of the ocean, Singh said it was an unforgettable and thrilling experience. “I now wish to create a world record in solo deep diving as a tribute to my country,” said Singh.
The record is currently held by American explorer Victor Vesovo. In 2019, Vesovo piloted the deepest solo dive ever made, at 10,928 metres inside the Mariana Trench.
Jatinder Pal Singh a qualified submariner
Jatinder Pal Singh (38) has worked in the three services of the Indian Armed Forces, and is a qualified submariner. He served in the Army as an NCC cadet, air warrior in the Indian Air Force (AIF) and commander in the IN. “The Atlantic is very dense with high salinity. It is pitch dark inside the ocean. We used our torches to look out. The water at that depth was grey and there was slurry around. It took us three to four hours to descend into the ocean and that much time to ascend. We spent around four hours deep inside the ocean to operate manipulators for sample collection and manoeuvring the submersible. We also had first-hand experience in handling the weight management of the vehicle,” added Singh.
Raju (50), from Tamil Nadu, recounted the experiments conducted. “We lowered an object to a depth of 4,000 metres, and detected it using obstacle avoidance sonar. The submersible was piloted to the object, and an inspection was done from the sphere. Manipulator operations were conducted for sampling tools at an altitude of 2.5m for 45 minutes. We checked the life support systems, acquired and recorded underwater visuals and oceanographic data. As per standard operating procedures, we had to call the onboard research vessel every 30 minutes using the acoustic phone, which operates on sound waves,” said Raju.
He leads the electronics team for design and development of control, guidance, navigation and communication system for manned and unmanned underwater vehicles at the NIOT. The design of the hull is spherical and has a conducive life supporting system that makes the inhabited condition similar to that on land. “At 4,000m inside the sea, the temperature was 3 degree Centigrade. Inside the hull, it was 12 to 13 degree Centigrade. We had oxygen support for 108 hours; 12 hours for the expedition duration and 96 hours for emergency backup,” said Raju.