{"id":34019,"date":"2023-03-19T07:23:44","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T01:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34019"},"modified":"2025-04-20T08:11:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T02:41:27","slug":"samudrayaan-mission-to-explore-marine-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/samudrayaan-mission-to-explore-marine-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Samudrayaan Mission: To Explore Marine Biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is NIOT?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Samudrayaan Mission?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is MATSYA 6000?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary Regarding MATSYA-6000<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In order to explore the potential of the seabed, the National Institute of Ocean Technology&#8217;s (NIOT) MATSYA 6000 will dive 6,000-meter into the Indian Ocean under the Samudrayaan mission.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is NIOT?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Established in <strong>1993 <\/strong>as an autonomous society under the <strong>Ministry of Earth Sciences <\/strong>(MoES), NIOT is based in <strong>Chennai<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The major aim of starting NIOT was <strong>to develop reliable indigenous technologies<\/strong> to solve various <strong>engineering problems associated with harvesting of non-living and living resources<\/strong> in India&#8217;s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Samudrayaan Mission?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Samudrayaan, or the journey into the sea, is a mission launched in <strong>2021 <\/strong>to unlock the mysteries of the deep ocean for<strong> mineral resources and develop deep sea technologies<\/strong> for sustainable use of ocean resources.<\/li>\n<li>A sub-component of India&#8217;s <strong>Deep-Sea Mission<\/strong>, the Samudrayaan mission aimed at supporting the <strong>Blue Economy initiatives<\/strong> of the Indian government by developing niche technology, <strong>vehicles to carry out subsea activities<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The MoES is the <strong>nodal ministry<\/strong> to implement this multi-institutional ambitious mission.<\/li>\n<li>The estimated cost of the mission will be <strong>Rs 4077 crore<\/strong> for a period of 5 years to be implemented in a phase-wise manner &#8211; cost for the first phase (2021-2024) would be Rs 2823.4 crore.<\/li>\n<li>Indian Space Research Organization (<strong>ISRO<\/strong>), <strong>Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology <\/strong>(Pune) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (<strong>DRDO<\/strong>) will actively participate in this mission.<\/li>\n<li>It was conceptualised based on the forthcoming <strong>Gaganyaan mission<\/strong> &#8211; ISRO\u2019s attempt at a crewed mission into space &#8211; expected in late 2024 or 2025.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi-test.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/content\/ckeditor\/2023\/03\/23\/image-20230323154512-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Deep Ocean Mission<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8nBxcdje70s\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8nBxcdje70s\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is MATSYA 6000?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is a <strong>manned submersible vehicle<\/strong> developed by NIOT under the Samudrayaan mission to facilitate humans in the deep ocean in exploring mineral resources like Nickel, Cobalt, Rare Earths, Manganese, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Expected to be launched in 2024-25, it would make India <strong>only one among six countries (US, Russia, Japan, France, and China) <\/strong>to have piloted a crewed under-sea expedition beyond 5,000 metres.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary Regarding MATSYA-6000:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s seabed and the relevant zones with economic potential are not deeper than 6,000 metres.<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s energy needs and increasing competition to harness ocean resources are the key thrust for the Samudrayaan mission.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The International Seabed Authority<\/strong> (ISA) has allocated about 75,0000 square kilometres in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) to conduct exploratory mining (of polymetallic nodules).<\/li>\n<li>Just this month the UN passed the <strong>High Seas treaty<\/strong> (India too has committed to this) that seeks <strong>to protect 30% of the world\u2019s ocean by 2030.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>MATSYA-6000 <\/strong>is a spherical, titanium hull (made by ISRO) equipped with life-support, capable of floating underwater and collecting soil and rock samples from the seabed with attached robotic arms.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Three navigators<\/strong>, over a fortnight and about 1,500 km away from Kanyakumari will undertake multiple trips &#8211; each lasting about 12 hours (descent and ascent will be 8 hours and rest is exploration, surveying and scientific activity).<\/li>\n<li>At a depth of 6,000 metres, <strong>the weight of water would be nearly 600 times that at sea level <\/strong>which makes the pressurised hull the most important component of the submersible.<\/li>\n<li><strong>About 60%<\/strong> of the submersible was manufactured in India. Components such as cameras, sensors, and communication systems were bought from international vendors.<\/li>\n<li>Over the years, NIOT has consulted with crewed-submersible experts from several countries &#8211; Japan, Russia, France and the know-how to ensure a safe ascent and descent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What are polymetallic nodules?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Polymetallic nodules\/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, deposits have been identified as a potential economic interest.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is the International Seabed Authority (ISA)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The ISA (HQ &#8211; Kingston, Jamaica) is an intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the EU established under the 1982 UNCLOS in 1994. The ISA&#8217;s dual mission is to authorize and control development of mineral related operations in the international seabed and to protect the ecosystem of the seabed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/india-suits-up-for-deepest-dive-yet-with-national-institute-of-ocean-technologys-samudrayaan\/article66634534.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India set to dive to explore marine biodiversity<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1885366\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>PIB<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederal.com\/explainers-2\/samudrayaan-mission-explained-india-to-send-humans-500m-under-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>TheFederal.com<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Samudrayaan mission aims to develop deep sea technologies for sustainable use of ocean resources<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}