Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology Jitendra Singh launched the Samudrayaan project of the Ministry of Earth Sciences for deep ocean exploration for rare minerals on Friday. Ahead of this launch, the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had developed a ‘personnel sphere,’ built of mild steel and tested it as an unmanned trial, two days back, using the Ocean Research Vessel Sagar Nidhi, in Bay of Bengal.
G. A. Ramadass, director of NIOT said, the deep sea vehicle Matsya 6000 under the Samudrayaan project aims to send humans underwater for deep sea exploration; it is a five-year project at an estimated cost of ₹350 crore. Now, this unmanned trial done two days back with this ‘personnel sphere’ was carried out before sending humans on this deep sea mission. “This trial was a precursor and the sphere was lowered upto a depth of 600 metres, off Chennai coast. Now that we have received certification for this trial, we will work on the next one wherein a sphere of 2.1 diameter will be built in which three humans can sit and be sent off to a depth of 6,000 metres,” he said.