RAS question
India's Samudrayaan mission aims to:
Correct answer: (A) Send humans to 6000m ocean depth.
India's Samudrayaan mission aims to send three people to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean using the manned submersible Matsya.
Explanation
Samudrayaan is India's manned deep-ocean mission, centred on taking three scientists to 6000 metres below the sea in the submersible Matsya. The Press Information Bureau release confirms that Matsya is designed for deep-sea exploration at that depth and that NIOT, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is the implementing nodal agency. This is why option A captures the mission's defining objective. The mission is further placed in the Central Indian Ocean, where it is meant to support exploration of polymetallic nodules, deep-sea biodiversity and hydrothermal vents. In exam terms, Samudrayaan is not a coastal survey, cable-laying project or space mission; it belongs to India's indigenous deep-ocean technology and blue-economy push.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Mapping the coastline is a coastal survey activity, whereas Samudrayaan is framed around manned deep-sea exploration at 6000 metres.
- (C) Building underwater cables is an infrastructure task, but the mission described here uses Matsya for scientific exploration of the deeper ocean.
- (D) Exploring Mars is a space-science objective, while Samudrayaan is explicitly an ocean mission led through India's deep-ocean technology programme.
Concept
This tests Science and Technology awareness around India's indigenous deep-ocean mission and its institutional anchor. It recurs in RAS because such missions connect technology, resources, biodiversity and the blue economy.