How earlier missions paved the way for Gaganyaan

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), apart from beginning the process of developing a new spaceport in Tuticorin in Tamilnadu, 2020 will also witness the space agency launch new satellite missions and take steps towards realising Gaganyaan, which is India’s first human space flight mission. On the satellite front, the ISRO Chairman K. Sivan stated that the space agency has planned the launch of ten missions in 2020. These satellite missions include communications satellites GSAT1 and GSAT-12R. In addition, the space agency will also launch the RISAT-2BR2, the Microsat for space-borne surveillance operations and finally the sun mission – Aaditya L1, which ISRO is aiming to launch in the middle of 2020. While the satellite missions are crucial, the enterprise that is well worth following closely is the Gaganyaan mission, which is likely to see important developments in the coming year. On January 1, ISRO released its astronaut shortlist for India’s first moon mission. A team of four astronauts has been selected to undergo intensive training during the year in Russia. ISRO’s developmental efforts to send humans into space has been in the works for several years. Although one mission as we will see below was to happen, but it did not happen. Nevertheless, two crucial missions involving unmanned re-entry vehicles that ISRO undertook generated a wealth of data, enabling the Gaganyaan mission to reach where it is currently. The first effort to validate and demonstrate a proven space to earth re-entry capacity was the Space Recovery Experiment-1 (SRE-1). The SRE-1 was launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C7 (PSLV-7) rocket and successfully recovered in the Bay of Bengal in January 2007, which carried two key payload for experiments in microgravity conditions among them were the Bio Mimetic Payload (BMP) and the Isothermal Heating Furnace (HIS) part of which was the Quasi-Crystal Experiment (QCE). The latter falls within the field material and nano-science, and the former in understanding human replication or emulation of natural creatures such as birds or mammals through replication and emulation in the form of technological artefacts such as airplanes as well as re-entry vehicles. Data would also have provided the aerodynamic, thrust, drag related performance of the re-entry vehicle. The BMP would be crucial to understanding and gathering data on how spacecraft used in spaceflight would perform under the conditions of microgravity and during atmospheric re-entry. Indeed the re-entry vehicle rendezvoused in space for twelve days during when it undertook experimentation in microgravity. Determining the effects of microgravity on the morphology (structural features) such as the surfactants of the SRE-1 as well as during atmospheric re-entry involving high temperatures and extreme pressures was a crucial requirement of the mission. In the case of the QCE the instrument built by the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) was experimentation related to metal melting and crystallisation undertaken under an Isothermal Heating Furnace (IHS). It falls within the field of crystallography (the study of crystal structure) in chemistry and was likely to ascertain how Quasi Crystals (QCs) occur naturally and the space environment is ideal because of its variable conditions. Conventional crystals contain atoms that are arranged in a repeating pattern, which is precisely how they repeat along three dimensions of the crystal such as in triangles and squares; QCs are arranged symmetrically like crystals but are non-periodic or non-repetitive. In addition, the QCE was geared to testing and collecting data on QCs such as the isotope Magnesium 36 (Mg36) under the effects of microgravity. Magnesium is a key nutrient for cardiovascular, muscle and bone health in earth as well as human space flight. For the pursuit of follow-on missions, the SRE-1 helped establish the foundations of three areas covering Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLVs), human space missions and microgravity processing. The BMP and QCE as part of the IHS were primarily microgravity experiments. Undoubtedly, the SRE-1 served as a stepping-stone for the Gaganyaan. However, in the second effort as part of a follow-on mission, the SRE-2 was supposed to be undertaken in 2009, yet ISRO was unable to see the mission to fruition. The mission was expected to undertake microgravity experimentation for material and life science with a thermal protection system around the nose cap of the reentry body that was to be developed indigenously using Carbon-Carbon. The absence of Carbon-Carbon for the nose cone rendered the mission unsuccessful. ISRO’s inability to validate the space flight and re-entry technology that is safe for human crew as well as the health and the survival of the crewed spacecraft due to its failure to launch SRE-1 was not merely a setback, but inept and monetarily wasteful as it overshot the budget. More than the loss of money, SRE-II was supposed to be a thirty-day mission longer than the SRE-1 and was expected to carry new experimental instruments aboard making the Gaganyaan mission safer and reliable. However, the space agency did redeem itself partially, with the successfully launch of the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE). Launched from a Geosynchronous Space Launch Vehicle Mk-III (GSLV-MkIII), it was a suborbital mission geared for validating the performance of re-entry spacecraft technology for atmospheric entry. Undoubtedly, this mission was successful and indispensable. Only time will tell whether the failure to launch the SRE-II will have adverse consequences for the actual Gaganyaan mission. To be sure, the Indian manned space mission will not happen at least until 2022 and there may still be time for ISRO taking another stab at the launch of SRE-II. However, the mission to send Indians into space is underway in earnest and all we can do is support India’s space managers and the human space crew.

• International Affairs
• Space
• India
• Gangayaan
• ISRO
• PSLV
• RISAT

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