GAGANYAAN
MISSION - SCI & TECH
News:
Gaganyaan mission: ISRO
completes key engine test
What's
in the news?
●
The Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) has successfully completed the CE20 E13 engine hot test for the
Gaganyaan qualification and 22-tonne thrust qualification.
Key
takeaways:
●
The Test Vehicle D-1/Crew Escape System
mission of the Gaganyaan mission is likely to be conducted in the last week of
October.
Gaganyaan
mission:
Aim:
●
Gaganyaan is an Indian crewed orbital
spacecraft that is intended to send 3
(including a women) astronauts to space for a minimum of three days by 2022
(delayed due to COVID-19).
Launched
by:
●
ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle GSLV Mk III (3 stages
heavy-lift vehicle)
Components:
●
Consists of a service module and a crew
module, collectively known as an Orbital Module (Crew Module carries astronauts
& Service Modules carries propellants).
●
ISRO had been working on related
technologies and it performed a Crew
Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment and a Pad Abort Test for the
mission.
LEO:
●
It will circle Earth at a low-earth-orbit at an altitude of 300-400
km from the earth for 5-7 days.
Vyom
Mitra:
●
ISRO to send humanoid Vyommitra in unmanned Gaganyaan spacecraft ahead of human
spaceflight (Monitoring module parameters).
Significance:
●
If the maiden human spaceflight Gaganyaan
mission is a success, India will become
the fourth country to have conducted human spaceflights after the US,
Russia, and China.
●
The programme would spur research and
development within the country in niche science and technology
●
ISRO has developed some critical technologies like re-entry
mission capability, crew escape system, crew module configuration, thermal
protection system, deceleration and flotation system, sub-systems of life
support system required for Mission Gaganyaan.
●
The human spaceflight programme will
provide a unique micro-gravity platform
in space for conducting experiments and a test bed for future technologies.
●
It has potential for technology spinoffs
in several areas such as medicine, agriculture, industrial safety, pollution,
waste management, water and food resource management through this programme.
●
The maiden spaceflight is also aiming to
achieve economic activities such as employment generation, human resource
development, and enhanced industrial capabilities.