Charting Indian space odyssey: Gaganyaan mission is ambitious, indigenous

The Gaganyaan mission is ambitious and indigenous. Shine Jacob explains the nuts and bolts in its planning

On January 10, 2007, India launched an experimental space capsule that stayed in orbit for 12 days for a series of manoeuvres and was recovered when it splashed into the Bay of Bengal.

The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), which was launched using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), was the frontrunner of what is going to be the country's first manned space mission called Gaganyaan. It was a demonstration that India had the technology to send humans to space and bring them back safely.

The Union Cabinet approved Rs 9,023-crore for the mission in December 2018, five months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the national ambition in his Independence Day speech. India will be the fourth country, after the United States, Russia and China, to conduct a manned space mission. The names of the four astronaut candidates, Indian Air Force test pilots Prashanth Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan and Shubhanshu Shukla, were made public last week.

Securing the crew

Gaganyaan will by 2025 send a three-membered crew into an orbit of 400 km for three days and bringing them back to the earth. "The speciality of our mission is that all the hardware, except the space suit, is indigenously built. In any manned mission, the most important things are crew management and crew recovery," N Sudheer Kumar, director for capacity building programme office on space opportunities at Isro, told Business Standard. According to Kumar, Gaganyaan has three key technology elements: A reliable “man-rated” launch vehicle, a livable crew module, and an environmental control and life support system (ECLSS). The Human Space Flight Centre at Isro’s headquarters in Bengaluru is managing the mission. 

Isro will use its old war horse, heavy lift launcher Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3), for the mission. LVM was designed to place communication satellites into geostationary orbit and has been upgraded for Gaganyaan for a three-staged launch. The first stage has two solid fuel boosters; the second comprises two liquid-fuelled engines and the final stage includes a cryogenic engine with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel. 

In February, Isro conducted performance tests of the cryogenic engine and certified it to be human ready. On February 14, a final vacuum test of the cryogenic engine was successfully completed at the space agency’s High Altitude Test Facility in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. The flight engine for the mission has also cleared the acceptance test.

PM Narendra Modi with the IAF test pilots training for Gaganyaan mission | Photos: PTI

After LVM3 flies to space, an orbital module comprising the crew of astronauts will be placed in orbit. The astronauts will be contained in a pressurised earth-like atmospheric condition in the module.

"It (the module) should look at how an astronaut's comfort is maintained; how he can move around – bio-toilets, water and food availability, waste management is controlled by this," said Kumar. "Space suit is very important. During the descending and ascending phase, he (the astronaut) should go around wearing it. During the rest of the things, he should come out of the suit."

The crew module is a double-walled construction comprising a pressurised, metallic inner structure and an unpressurised external structure with thermal protection system. It houses human-centric products, a life-support system, avionics and deceleration systems. The module is designed to ensure the astronauts' safety as it descends and returns to earth.

Isro is likely to procure space suits from Russia, which trained the Indian astronaut candidates at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, about 30 km north of Moscow. The Indians completed their Russian training and returned to India in 2021. Since then they have undergone several theoretical and practical sessions at Isro's Human Spaceflight Centre and the Indian Air Force's Institute of Aerospace Medicine. The United States of America is helping in Gaganyaan preparations and has agreed to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station.

Life in space

ECLSS is one of the crucial parts in maintaining life inside a space shuttle for it manages air quality and water supply. It also controls temperature, waste disposal and fire protection. Air quality is maintained using activated charcoal beds, catalytic oxidisers, and molecular sieves. Water is reclaimed using crew members' urine and cabin humidity. 

India indigenously developed ECLSS as other nations were reportedly not keen in sharing such a  technology.

After the success of SRE-1, Isro mastered the art of crew atmospheric reentry through a 20-minute suborbital flight called the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment on December 18, 2014. An upgraded test was conducted in October last year, when a liquid-propelled single-stage Test Vehicle successfully conducted a crew escape system test. The system ensures quick ejection of the crew to reduce potential risks, during reentry.

The Gaganyaan mission comes 40 years after Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian in space as part of a Soviet Union mission in 1984. According to Isro , Sharma is hand holding the four astronaut candidates for the Gaganyaan mission. If all goes as per plan, India is expected to create history by the end of this year or early next year.