Samudrayaan Mission: Delay in MATSYA 6000 Foam from France
Why in the news
Receipt of buoyancy foam from France is behind schedule, setting back India’s first manned ocean-depth mission.
Key facts
- Samudrayaan: India’s first crewed submersible mission; submersible MATSYA 6000; target depth 6,000 metres, which few countries reach.
- Lead agency: NIOT, Chennai; ministry: Earth Sciences.
- Syntactic foam cladding gives the vehicle buoyancy; its delayed supply from France caused the setback.
- Three crew would collect soil, rock and mineral samples, useful for future deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules and rare metals.
Exam pointers
- Mission type: crewed deep-ocean dive.
- Related minerals: polymetallic nodules.
Exam angle
- Lead agency: National Institute of Ocean Technology.
- Submersible name: MATSYA 6000.