The nation may launch its first crewed Gaganyaan in 2023.
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| GAGANYAAN MISSION ISRO |
So far, sending humans into space has been limited to the space programs of only three countries: the U.S., Russia (inheriting that of the former Soviet Union), and, joining them in the 21st century, China. But a fourth is poised to follow: the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India's space exploration agency.
ISRO isn't afraid to dream big. The agency's head, K. Sivan, has talked about space stations and moonwalks. ISRO hopes that the long arc toward those goals can begin with its first program of crewed missions, Gaganyaan (derived from Sanskrit, meaning "sky-vehicle"). But Gaganyaan's timetable remains murky — largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Certainly, all the pieces are coming into place. ISRO's first four would-be space travelers recently spent about a year in Russia, familiarizing themselves with old Soyuz capsules and simulating spaceflight conditions in centrifuges and pressure chambers. Now, they've returned to India, where they'll begin training on the Gaganyaan capsule itself.
To ensure that its space travelers are in good health, ISRO unveiled an agreement with its French counterpart in April. India and France have a long history of space cooperation, and France has plenty of space medicine knowledge that it has previously brought to programs like the International Space Station.
"It is only logical that Indian flight medical professionals train and learn from the French," Mukund Kadursrinivas Rao, chief executive of the Centre for Spatial Analytics and Advanced GIS in Bangalore, India, told Space.com.
ISRO hopes that such international partnerships will help build up the technology it needs to send up humans for the long term. To wit, ISRO has unveiled Indian space food and a humanoid robot for uncrewed flights. Rao says that, closer to home in India, ISRO has tested other key aspects of Gaganyaan, such as its launch abort and re-entry systems.
But looming over all of it is the tragic specter of COVID-19; India is now reopening after a debilitating second wave of the disease. ISRO had dedicated some of its resources to helping the country's strained healthcare system supply liquid oxygen and medical equipment.
In the meantime, many of the agency's employees had to stay at home. "That was a difficult step, I think," Rao said, explaining that it disrupted important tasks like assembling and testing the spacecraft, activities that need to be done in person.
"There are also many industries contributing to the missions, and they too would be affected," Rao said.
Plans called for the Gaganyaan program to kick off with two uncrewed test launches, the first set for December 2021. That date has come and gone; now, it appears the first launch will occur near the end of 2022, with the second coming in 2022.
After that, the third Gaganyaan mission would carry ISRO's historic first spacefarers to orbit. At least some Indian government officials wanted that crewed launch to take off in August 2022, around the 75th anniversary of modern India's independence. But a government minister recently said it won't happen before 2023.
A one-piece that remains is ensuring that the spacecraft — and the spacefarers on board — are never out of contact with controllers on Earth. ISRO's ground stations are concentrated in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. To patch in the rest of the globe, ISRO is planning to launch a pair of data-relay satellites. Such spacecraft will be crucial even for the uncrewed missions, according to Rao.
Gaganyaan isn't ISRO's only project to face delays. ISRO's next moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 — which seeks to put a rover on the moon after its last attempt crashed on the lunar surface in September 2019 — was scheduled to take off later in 2021. Now, it seems to have slipped into 2022.
VYOMANAUT
Indian astronauts will be called vyomanauts.The Indian Space Agency, ISRO, may not be the most well-known space agency across the world. However, even with a small budget and a late start compared to other countries, its achievements have been remarkable. From sending 104 satellites in a single rocket to inserting a probe in a Martian orbit on their first attempt, India is quickly becoming a global player in the space scene. And whereas space agencies like NASA or ESA have budgets of billions of dollars, ISRO has successfully completed interplanetary missions at a fraction of the price.
Next up for ISRO is the ambitious Gaganyaan mission, which will be India’s first manned space venture. So, what exactly does ISRO hope to achieve with the Gaganyaan mission? Will this be the forerunner of bigger and better things?
Rakesh Sharma
we will investigate the details of the Gaganyaan mission, and what the Indian Space Agency hopes to achieve in the future. Rakesh Sharma is the first and the only Indian citizen to travel in space up until this point. He was a part of the Soyuz T-11 mission, which was a collaboration between ISRO and the Soviet space program all the way back in 1984. During this mission, he stayed aboard the Salyut 7 space station, a tiny space station that existed back in the 1980s. Since then, there have been plans for further manned missions from India itself.
One such mission began in 2006, but the project never took off due to low funding, meaning it never passed the initial planning stages. Fortunately, however, ISRO's success in space science over the past decade has led to a renewed interest in a manned mission.
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The GAGANYAAN MISSION
All going well, this will be the next breakthrough for the space agency. In fact, this goal was confirmed by India’s Prime Minister, as one of his commitments since being in power has been to send Indians to space again by 2022, and this time independently from any other space agency. So, how will they go about doing this? Well, the initial plan is that ISRO’s pride and joy, the GSLV MKIII Launch vehicle, will take the Gaganyaan spacecraft into a low Earth orbit. Gaganyaan will be a fully autonomous spacecraft, designed to carry two or three astronauts into a low earth orbit at 400km altitude for seven days. The spacecraft consists of a crew module, where the astronauts stay; and a service module that contains a variety of support systems. The spacecraft itself will be propelled by two liquid-propellant engines. These two modules combined make up the orbital module, which can provide life-support to the crew for seven days before they splash down in the ocean. This will be an impressive feat, seven days in space is quite a long time for a simple capsule.
Generally speaking, capsules transporting astronauts have only ever needed to make short trips, for instance, the Russians have docked with the ISS in only 6 hours after take-off, and even for longer trips, it takes at most about 2-3 days.
GAGANYAAN flights
To meet the 2022 deadline, ISRO has two unmanned test launches planned for December 2021 and July 2022 respectively. The two unmanned flights will help ensure that everything functions correctly - including the environment control in the modules and to test whether the capsule will remain safe for humans during the duration of the journey.
Dr. V R Lalithambika, director, human spaceflight program, during a unique meeting on Gaganyaan at the International Conference and Exhibition On Space — Ushering The New Era In Indian Space Sector, coordinated by the CII, said on Thursday, "There has been an enormous public interest among young people in the Gaganyaan mission.
GAGANYAAN mission director
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| GAGANYAAN mission director V. R. Lalithambika |
Dr. V R Lalithambika, director, human spaceflight program, during a unique meeting on Gaganyaan at the International Conference and Exhibition On Space — Ushering The New Era In Indian Space Sector, coordinated by the CII, said on Thursday, "There has been an enormous public interest among young people in the Gaganyaan mission.
Indian astronauts will be called vyomanauts.
“vyomanauts”
1. It is a word derived from the Sanskrit language.
2. Sanskrit for sky or space is “ Vyoma “.
3. It was also proposed to call them “ Gagnauts “.
4. Hindi for sky is “ gagan “.
But vyomanauts is accepted by ISRO for calling space travelers from India.
So the accepted term is “ vyomanauts”.
Name of the robot that India sent to space before Gaganyaan
Vyommitra
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| Vyommitra |
Human space flight simply has to be a serious step up in complexity and thoroughness compared to robotic missions, as there’s a lot more at stake should a manned mission fail. Additionally, ISRO has developed a female humanoid robot named “Vyommitra”. This humanoid robot will be a part of both the manned and unmanned missions of Gaganyaan. During the uncrewed missions, Vyommitra can mimic human functions and will record parameters such as blood pressure and heart rate. Vyommitra will also be able to recognize and understand astronauts, and ISRO hopes to see if she can be of help to them during the manned mission. Other space companies see the value in a robotic colleague too. Recently, SpaceX sent an anthropomorphic test dummy named “Ripley” to mimic human functions, similar to Vyom Mitra.
candidates
In January 2020, ISRO shortlisted 4 men who are going to be a part of the Gaganyaan mission. The four candidates have already begun their 12-month training at Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Centre, Russia. Now, of course, humanity already has a lot of experience in LEO, so this mission is less of a scientific mission, rather more of a technology demonstration mission.
GAGANYAAN future
However, it is an important first step for ISRO and its future independent missions, which will include Chandrayaan-3, ISRO’s third mission to the moon, and Shukrayaan-1, its first attempt at a mission to Venus. ISRO even hopes to one day build its own space station. So, there we have it, a look at some of the exciting missions that will be coming from India. Personally, I think this is a good thing for the space sector. Competition breeds innovation, and if India can make space travel safe and cheap, it can benefit the world going forward.
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