In just a few weeks, India has conquered not only the skies, but also the ocean depths. Following the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole, India is now preparing for a historic journey to explore 6-kilometer deep ocean waters with its ‘Samudrayaan’ mission.
MATSYA 6000: India’s Samudrayaan Mission 2023
Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Earth Sciences, recently revealed that the vehicle for this underwater adventure would be the ‘MATSYA 6000’ a cutting-edge submersible. The machine, created at Chennai’s National Institute of Ocean Technology, is designed to carry three humans. The primary goal of the expedition will be to conduct a comprehensive study of deep-sea resources and an assessment of marine biodiversity.
Unlike the lunar landing, ‘Samudrayaan’ has an economic component. According to the minister, the mission’s goal is to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Blue Economy.” The mission envisions long-term extraction of ocean resources to help India’s economic growth and job creation. It will also protect marine ecosystems.
“India’s first manned Deep Ocean Mission, ‘Samudrayaan,’ intends to send three humans in a submersible to a depth of six kilometers to study deep sea resources and assess biodiversity.” “The project will have no negative impact on the ocean ecosystem,” Rijiju previously stated on X (formerly Twitter).
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the country’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, from Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre just two weeks ago. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which is now stationed near the Moon’s South Pole, is also continuing its lunar mission.
Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister, recently inspected the ‘MATSYA 6000’. He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to this underwater mission, assuring that it would not jeopardize the delicate oceanic ecosystem.
A number of ambitious projects highlight India’s rapid progress in space and oceanic research. The successful soft landing on the Moon assisted India in overcoming the disappointment of the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s crash landing four years earlier. Now, with ‘Samudrayaan,’ the country appears to be on the verge of making yet another historical mark, this time in the depths of the Earth’s oceans.