India is now firmly steeped in the race to send humans to space. The test flight of the Gaganyaan mission TV-D1 on Saturday for assessing if the drogue parachutes can stabilise the spacecraft and decelerate it during a reentry to the Earth’s atmosphere was like a curtain raiser to the real event.
After being put on hold for 5 seconds before the launch, the anomaly was soon detected and the launch happened two hours after the stipulated time reflecting on the nation’s growing prowess in the space sector.
The test vehicle missions planned before the actual mission were meant to demonstrate and ascertain the performance of crew escape system and parachute-based deceleration system for different flight conditions.
Gaganyaan will be India’s first human spaceflight —a crewed mission to the Moon. But, there will be a few more test flights to validate the human safety precautions before the actual launch slated for 2025.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced on August 15, 2018, the plan to send humans to space. The pandemic caused some delays in the time deadlines, but the project has now got back on track. The successful test flight on Saturday has reaffirmed the preparedness and the acumen of the Indian space agency — the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)— for this dream project.
Test flight
Saturday’s mission was only the first of the several abort tests that the space agency has planned before the actual crewed mission in 2025. This will now pave the way for other unmanned missions, including sending a robot into space next year. This would be called Vyommitra — the Sanskrit word for “space friend” — the female humanoid.
After the launch, a series of parachutes were deployed as the module began its descent to help ensure a safe touchdown in the waters of Bay of Bengal, about 10 km from Sriharikota coast.
During TV-D1, an unpressurised crew module has been used. However, in the case of the crewed flight test of Gaganyaan, a pressurised crew module will be used, inside which Earth-like atmospheric pressure conditions will be simulated.
Humans to Space
The global superpowers have been historically striving to gain supremacy in the place above the Earth. There was a continuous jostling for dominance among the US and Russia in the 1950s and the 1960s. The race to send people to the Moon has spiralled in the recent years after decades of a lull. The moon, with its trove of natural resources has become the top choice for space explorations. The countries see these lunar habitats as a stop gap destination for future manned missions to other planets like Mars.
The last NASA crewed landing was in 1972. Humans have not forayed more than a few hundred miles off the planet since the return of Apollo 17 in 1972.
The erstwhile Soviet Union did send a few robotic spacecrafts after 1972 but soon lost interest in lunar exploration, only to be renewed after the United States re-ignited it’s moon dreams.
Both NASA and China’s space agency are now aggressively looking at potential landing sites near the south pole of the Moon where there is water and other resources needed for lunar explorations and settlement. The astronauts are expected to carry out other exploration tasks and scientific experiments.
The US is also working on a way to put its boots back on the lunar surface — something that hasn’t been done since 1972. The Artemis Program to land humans on the Moon by late 2024 has essentially put United States as a word leader in space. The competition for the humans on the moon has become even more ambitious with China and Russia also joining the league.
Artemis II, would be similar in profile to 1968’s Apollo 8 mission, which carried three astronauts into lunar orbit and back. This would be followed by Artemis III, which has a plan to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972.
Earlier this year China has unveiled its plans to take humans to the moon. The mission, expected to take place before 2030, is part of a project to establish a lunar research station. It will investigate how best to build the facility, and carry out moon exploration tasks and other experiments.
Two launch vehicles will send a Moon surface lander and manned spacecraft into lunar orbit, before they dock with each other, according to state-run Global Times. After docking, the Chinese astronauts on board the spacecraft will enter the lander, which is used to descend to the moon’s surface.
Tech challenges
Besides the cost factor, sending humans to space needs an immense technological prowess. Experts have already cited the challenges these astronauts will face as compared to the Apollo missions which landed on the relatively flat terrains of the equatorial regions. The south pole of the moon besides having several craters remain in almost a shadow for most of the time. A spacewalk on a lunar surface that can extend to a few hours can be challenging because of extreme temperatures and near absence of sunlight.
There is a lot of debate on the lunar explorations, given the incredible cost and technological hurdles on the way. Some question the justification for spending so much money on these missions considering the fact that the world is grappling with issues of climate change, poverty and hunger.
But despite all the challenges, the space has become a territory for a nation to flaunt its technical and economic muscle. And India cannot be left behind in this race.
(Edited by : C H Unnikrishnan)
First Published: Oct 23, 2023 8:51 AM IST
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