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Ocean, polar and earth science missions

Missions to the deep ocean and the polar regions, and the science of the Earth: deep sea exploration, seabed minerals and who may mine them, ocean observation, India's Arctic and Antarctic research, and seismology. Prelims has asked about India's Deep Ocean Mission and who licenses exploration of the international seabed.

12 Aug 2026 · 5 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains

Deep Ocean Mission

Begun in 2021 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the ₹4,077 crore mission develops the technology for exploring and using deep ocean resources. It is reported as a mining programme, though mining is one of the six verticals it runs.

Deep Ocean Mission

  • Mining and submersible

    • Deep sea mining technology and a crewed submersible

  • Ocean climate advisories

    • Advisory services on ocean climate change

  • Deep sea biodiversity

    • Exploring and conserving deep sea life

  • Ocean survey

    • Surveying the deep ocean and its resources

  • Energy and freshwater

    • Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) from the sea

  • Marine biology station

    • An advanced station for marine biology
From the Press Information Bureau releases of 5 and 12 August 2026

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2026: India's Deep Ocean Mission and Samudrayaan

12 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains

Samudrayaan and Matsya6000

Samudrayaan is the mission's crewed deep sea programme, and Matsya6000 is the submersible built for it. It is designed to carry three people to 6,000 metres, which is the depth at which India's nodule field lies.

  • Matsya6000 has completed harbour trials.

PIB, 12 Aug 2026: Deep Ocean Mission: submersible, nodules and hydrothermal vents (opens in a new tab)

12 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains

Deep sea surveys and biodiversity

The mission reads the Indian Ocean floor for life as much as for metal, and the two turn up in the same places. The work reported in August covered seamount chains and the ridges along which hydrothermal vent fields sit.

  • Surveys of 31 seamounts recorded 201 deep sea species, 43 of them possibly new to science.
  • Four hydrothermal vent fields were found on the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges, among them India's first image of an active vent.

PIB, 5 Aug 2026: Deep Ocean Mission: submersible, nodules and hydrothermal vents (opens in a new tab)

9 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains

ORV Sagar Manthan

The surveys are worked from ships, and the vessel that has carried them is being replaced. ORV Sagar Manthan, built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) for the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), was launched at Kolkata in September.

  • Launch is not commissioning: the hull is floated out so construction can continue, and delivery is due in 2028.
  • It replaces ORV Sagar Kanya and can work in extreme seas, including the Southern Ocean.
  • It will survey Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges for hydrothermal sulphide deposits.

PIB, 9 Sep 2026: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh Launches India's Advanced Ocean Research Vessel 'ORV Sagar Manthan' to Drive Indigenous Maritime Research (opens in a new tab)

8 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains

Deep sea minerals

Two kinds of deposit are worth going to the ocean floor for, and they form in entirely different places. Polymetallic nodules settle grain by grain on a flat abyssal plain, while sulphides are thrown out where the plates pull apart.

Nodules and sulphides

Polymetallic nodules
  • Lumps growing very slowly on abyssal plains, 3,000 to 6,000 m deep
  • Manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper
Polymetallic sulphides
  • Deposits at hydrothermal vents along a mid-ocean ridge, where plates move apart
  • Copper, zinc, gold, silver
Standard marine geology

8 Sep 2026 · 12 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains

India's deep sea mining programme

The Ministry of Earth Sciences and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) have invited private industry into deep sea mining, at an outreach workshop held to secure the country's critical mineral supply. India already holds an exploration contract for nodules and two more for sulphides.

75,000 sq kmExclusive nodule exploration area held in the Central Indian Ocean Basin

5,270 mDepth at which NIOT's indigenous mining crawler has been trialled

From the Press Information Bureau releases of 12 August and 8 September 2026
  • India is the first nation to hold two sulphide exploration contracts, one of them on the Carlsberg Ridge in the Arabian Sea.
  • A White Paper on Deep Sea Mining is to set the terms on which industry comes in.

PIB, 8 Sep 2026: Ministry of Earth Sciences and NIOT Host Industry Outreach Workshop on Deep Sea Mining to Secure India's Critical Mineral Future (opens in a new tab)

8 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains

International Seabed Authority

Beyond any country's waters the seabed belongs to no one and its minerals to everyone, and a single body in Kingston, Jamaica decides who may go down.

  1. Exploration contract

    Exclusive ISA rights to survey an area

  2. Technology trials

    Crawlers tested beyond 5,000 m under the Deep Ocean Mission

  3. Industry and policy

    Private participation and a White Paper on Deep Sea Mining

  4. Exploitation Code

    Commercial mining in international waters only after the ISA brings it out

From the Press Information Bureau release, 8 September 2026
  • The International Seabed Authority (ISA), set up under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), regulates mineral activity in the Area and grants exploration contracts.
  • Its Exploitation Code has not been adopted, which is why India's contracts stretch to survey and test work and no further.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2021: who licenses seabed exploration in international waters

8 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains

Environmental cost of seabed mining

The case against going down is that the damage does not stay where the machine is. The mission's own species lists are part of the answer, since a loss can only be measured against a record of what was there.

  • Removing nodules destroys slow growing habitats that may take very long to recover.
  • Sediment plumes and noise can spread damage well beyond the mined site.

Also filed elsewhere