Breaking Barriers: India's Gaganyaan Mission

 

The Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) is India's mission control for Gaganyaan, their aspiring human spaceflight program. They're like the conductor of a giant orchestra, bringing together all the talented groups from ISRO centers, research labs, universities, and industries across India. Their main goal? To make Gaganyaan a success!

Safety is HSFC's top priority. They're developing cutting-edge technologies like life support systems and astronaut training programs to ensure the crew's well-being in space. This isn't just a one-time mission; HSFC is laying the groundwork for even more incredible things in the future, like building a space station and collaborating on missions to the Moon, Mars, and even asteroids!

Gaganyaan

The Gaganyaan project (from Sanskrit: gagana, "celestial" and yāna, "craft, vehicle") envisions a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth, by landing in Indian oceans. 

The launch was originally scheduled for December 2020 then in December but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it can't happen. Still, the official date for the launch of Gaganyaan has yet to be announced but will be in July 2024.

The project is accomplished through an optimal strategy by considering in-house expertise, experience of Indian industry, intellectual capabilities of Indian academia & research institutions along cutting-edge technologies available with international agencies. The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies including a human-rated launch vehicle for carrying the crew safely to space, a Life Support System to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew.

Preliminary missions are planned to demonstrate technical readiness before actual manned spaceflight operations. These demonstration projects include the Integrated AirDrop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT), and Test Vehicle (TV) flights. The safety and reliability of all systems shall be demonstrated in an unmanned mission before an unmanned mission.

Human rated LVM3 - HLVM3

LVM3 rocket - The well-proven and reliable heavy lift launcher of ISRO, is identified as the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission. It consists of the solid stage, liquid stage, and cryogenic stage. All systems in the LVM3 launch vehicle are re-configured to meet human rating requirements and christened Human Rated LVM3. HLVM3 will be capable of launching the Orbital Module to an intended Low Earth Orbit of 400 km.

HLVM3 consists of a Crew Escape System (CES) powered via a hard and fast of quick-performing, excessive burn fee stable automobiles which ensures that the Crew Module alongside the crew is taken to a secure distance in case of any emergency both at the launch pad or in the course of ascent segment.

Orbit Module

Orbital Module (OM) to be Orbiting Earth comprises of Crew Module (CM) and a Service Module (SM). OM is equipped with brand new avionics structures with good enough redundancy thinking about human safety.

CM is the habitable space with an Earth-like environment in space for the group. It is double double-walled creation consisting of a pressurized metallic Inner Structure and an unpressurized External Structure with a Thermal Protection System (TPS). It homes the group interfaces, human-centric products, life support gadgets, avionics, and deceleration systems. It is likewise designed for re-entry to ensure the protection of the crew at some stage in descent till landing.

SM could be used for providing important aid to CM while in orbit. It is an unpressurized structure containing thermal gadgets, propulsion machines, power systems, avionics structures, and deployment mechanisms.

New technologies being developed for gangayaan

While there haven't been any specific news reports about entirely new Thermal Electric Cooling Systems (TECG) being developed for Gaganyaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is constantly working on improving the reliability and safety of all the spacecraft systems, including thermal management.

-Focus on Crew Safety:  ISRO prioritizes ensuring a comfortable and safe environment for astronauts during the mission. This likely involves improvements to existing TECG systems for efficient heat dissipation within the crew module.

ISRO might be working on optimizing TECG materials or functionalities, but they likely wouldn't publicly announce them until they are ready for integration.

Crew trainning for Gaganyaan:

Astronaut Training Facility mounted in Bengaluru caters to Classroom training, Physical Fitness education, Simulator training, and Flight in shape education. Training modules cover instructional publications, Gaganyaan Flight Systems, Micro-gravity familiarization through Parabolic Flights, Aero-medical education, and Recovery.

Crew details :

Recently, the respected prime minister announced the names of the crew for Gaganyaan on 27th February 2024.

Test vehicle for characterization of Crew Escape System ready at SDSC:

-Pictures from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)at SHAR, Shriharikota

Milestones Achieved so far: 

         

Major milestones planned