Tata Elxsi Ltd, a technology services provider for the automotive and transportation industry, on Wednesday, said the company has partnered with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to enable the upcoming Gaganyaan Mission.
Through the association, the company has designed and developed Crew Module Recovery Models (CMRMs) for the recovery team training for the space mission.
ISRO's Gaganyaan project envisions a demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching the crew into a 400-kilometre orbit for a three-day mission and safely bringing them to Earth by landing in Indian sea waters.
One of the key requirements of this project is the safe recovery of the crew, which must be carried out with minimum lapse of time. This is where the CRRMs come into use, the company said in an exchange filing.
For recovery team training, CMRMs designed and fabricated by Tata Elxsi, simulated the mass, centre of gravity, outer dimensions, interfaces, and externals of the actual Crew Module.
Tata Elxsi effectively executed activities right from developing the design configuration, in accordance with the initial requirements provided by ISRO, to carrying out structural analysis for various load cases, material procurement and testing, fabrication, carrying out load tests, and transportation of the CMRMs and the Ground Support Fixture (GSF).
The project marked Tata Elxsi’s foray into the mechanical design for space, as this is the first time ISRO has outsourced the mechanical design and development work for a critical system to an external partner. Tata Elxsi has also emerged as the preferred partner for similar ISRO projects.
Manoj Raghavan, CEO and managing director of Tata Elxsi, said, "It is a matter of great pride for Tata Elxsi to play a role in the Gaganyaan Mission. This collaboration will help push the boundaries of technology, and provide us a unique opportunity to advance our capabilities while strengthening India’s space mission."
Currently, two Recovery-Models (CMRM and GSF) have been delivered to Naval training teams at Kochi and Visakhapatnam to train the recovery teams.
