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The Indian Space Agency, ISRO, may not be the most well-known space agency across the
world.
However, even with a small budget and 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?
I’m Alex McColgan, and you’re watching Astrum, and together 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 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.
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 splashdown 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.
To meet the 2022 deadline, ISRO has two unmanned test launches planned for December 2020 and
July 2021 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.
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 recognise 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,
in a similar fashion to Vyom Mitra.
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.
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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Thanks for watching!
If you enjoyed this video, be sure to like and subscribe, and also check out this video
I made about India’s other successful mission to Mars.
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