By R. Rakendu
Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini’s officers, Lieutenant Commander (Lt Cdr) Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa A, have become the first Indians to reach Point Nemo, the world’s most remote point. This was achieved during the Navika Sagar Parikrama II, a sailing voyage that circumnavigates the globe, which was described as ‘handed’ because it was done alongside 3 other great capes.
Point Nemo is bordered by New Zealand and Antarctica and is deemed the oceanic pole of inaccessibility, standing about 2688 km away from the nearest land point, making it extremely remote. The closest human presence is usually from the international space station as it is overhead, aiding its rarefied reputation.
This lonely part of the Pacific Ocean was crossed as the INSV Tarini completed its global journey that had begun from Goa on 2nd October, 2024. The crew has recently reached Lyttleton Port in New Zealand, having completed the second segment of the sailing voyage on 22nd December. Earlier this month, they had started the longest part of the expedition, which covers 5600 nautical miles to Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands.
The crossing of Point Nemo is a testament to the resilience, courage, and adventurous spirit of the two officers.
The expedition of these sailors does not merely focus on the destruction of space debris but also on Point Nemo, which has been identified as a spacecraft cemetery. Over two hundred and sixty residual fragments from satellites like the Russian spacecraft Mir and NASA’s Skylab have been dumped in this location to avoid the destruction of civilisations.
The Canadian Russian engineer, Hrvoje Lukatela, located this point in the ocean in 1992. Due to the absence of human population, it has become the best location for space debris to be dumped into the ocean after deorbiting. Holger Krag from the European Space Agency mentioned that the lack of human presence with the great expanse of the ocean makes this site the best for such purposes.