Context:
Recently, Union budget boosted India’s Deep Ocean Mission by strengthening with a Rs 600 crore allocation to explore ocean depths and develop sustainable technologies.
About
- It was launched in 2021, and India’s first manned ocean mission to explore the deep ocean.
- It was under the Deep Ocean Mission to explore the deep oceans to improve our understanding of the blue frontier.
- The mission focuses on mapping deep ocean floors and developing a manned submersible with a 6000m depth rating.
- It aims to create a deep-sea mining system for sustainable bioresource use and design offshore thermal energy-driven desalination plants.
- This project is part of the Deep Ocean Mission by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
- The technology is being developed by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous body under MoES.
- NIOT has created a 6000m depth-rated Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) named ‘Matsya 6000’.
- The mission aims to send three people to a depth of 6,000 meters in a submersible called the MATSYA 6000.
- The submersible will have an operational endurance of 12 hours, extendable up to 96 hours in the event of an emergency.
- Objectives of the Mission:
- To address issues arising from long-term changes in the ocean due to climate change.
- To develop technologies for deep-sea missions of living (biodiversity) and non-living (minerals) resources.
- To develop underwater vehicles and underwater robotics.
- To provide ocean climate change advisory services.
- To identify technological innovations and conservation methods for sustainable utilization of marine bio-resources
- To develop offshore-based desalination techniques.
- To develop renewable energy generation techniques
- Countries such as the U.S., Russia, China, France, and Japan have also taken significant steps in successful deep Ocean missions.