ISRO plans Gaganyaan unmanned flight tests, gears for abort mission
Context
The Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) has begun to be prepared for by the Indian Space Research Organisation, which intends to start unmanned flight testing for the Gaganyaan mission.
What is Mission Gaganyaan?
India’s space agency, ISRO, is currently working on the Gaganyaan mission.
It consists of three flights, two of which are unmanned and one of which is manned. Three Indian astronauts, one of whom will be a woman, will travel in the orbital module. It will spend 5-7 days in a 300–400 km low-Earth orbit around the planet.
What is the significance of the Mission Gaganyaan?
- Gaganyaan will raise the bar for science and technology while inspiring young people in India.
- It aids in the advancement of technology and industrial expansion for societal good.
- It involves numerous departments, industries, agencies, and labs.
- It encourages global cooperation and emphasizes the need for energy, water, and food security in the region.
What is the next step of preparedness done by Mission Gaganyaan?
- Preparations for the Abort Mission: ISRO is getting ready for the Flight Test Vehicle Abort Mission-1 (TV-D1) to show how well the crew escape system works.
How does it work?
- Development of the Crew Module: The Crew Module (CM) for the Gaganyaan mission is at various levels of completion. An unpressurized variant of the CM has finished integration and testing for TV-D1. It is intended to resemble the actual Gaganyaan CM in terms of heft and size. It has redundant avionics systems for navigation, sequencing, telemetry, instrumentation, and power as well as systems for deceleration, recovery, parachutes, recovery aids, actuation systems, and pyros.
- Recovery: The CM will be recovered in the Bay of Bengal using a specialized vessel and a dive squad from the Indian Navy following the test.
How will the test recovery vehicle work?
- Test Vehicle: For this abort mission, a single-stage liquid rocket has been built. It holds payloads, such as the crew escape system and the control module (CM), and it simulates an abort situation during ascent at a Mach number of 1.2, the same as that experienced by the Gaganyaan mission. At a height of around 17 km, the crew escape system will detach from the test vehicle, and several parachutes will be deployed to guarantee the safe descent of the CM into the water, 10 km off the coast of Sriharikota.
What is the significance of this Mission?
- Importance of the Mission: Representing a nearly finished system integration for a test flight, this mission is an important milestone in the Gaganyaan program. In the end, the first Gaganyaan mission with Indian astronauts will result from its success, which will open the door for other qualification tests and unmanned flights.
Conclusion
These findings mark a crucial stride in India’s space exploration efforts and show how far ISRO has come in reaching its goals for human spaceflight.
