Context:
Indian scientists are planning a dive similar to the one with the Titan submersible using an indigenous submersible in late 2024.
- They assure that multiple backup safety measures for the crew are already established, and there may be reviews of the safety systems in use.
- The Titan, which previously ferried tourists to the wreck of the Titanic buried 3,800 metres in the North Atlantic, lost contact with its mothership.
- The Titan consists of a carbon fibre sphere with a titanium casing on the front and back.
- In the planning stage of Matsya 6000, Indian scientists ruled out a proposal to use carbon fibre and insisted on a titanium enclosure.
- Titanium is stronger than steel but many times lighter — a key criterion that helps the submersible resurface with relative ease from the depths of the open ocean.
- National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai is in the process of designing a submersible, Matsya 6000 under the Samudrayaan project, that will take three Indians to a depth of 6,000 metres into the Indian Ocean for deep sea exploration
- Funding and duration: Five-year project at an estimated cost of ₹350 crore.
- Aim: Exploring oceans and to survey the ocean bed and collecting data and samples.
- Components:
- NIOT had developed a ‘personnel sphere’ made of mild steel for an operational capability of 500 metres and tested for its usage as per the International Classification and Certification Agency.
- Matsya 6000 has syntactic foam, a flotation device that would rise to the top and help determine the physical location of the submersible, even if it were unable to resurface.
- Established in: 1993 as an autonomous society
- Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- A Governing Council manages NIOT and the Director is the head of the Institute.
- Primary aim: To develop reliable indigenous technologies to solve the various engineering problems associated with the harvesting of non-living and living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)