India's Ambitions in Space Establishing a Space Station and Missions Ahead

TapTechNews July 6th news, after the success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission last year, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) gained great confidence, and the Indian prime minister Modi set a new goal for it: to establish an Indian space station (BAS) by 2035 and send the first Indian astronaut to the moon in 2040.

S.Somnath, the head of ISRO, said in an interview with News18 the day before yesterday that ISRO has completed the preliminary design work of the first module of the Indian space station.

The design of the Indian space station is completed and is on my desk; the entire design and protocol are completed. It's great to see that we can design the first space station that can be directly launched with existing rockets. But this is not enough. We need to make it bigger, so we need a new launch vehicle and a larger space station module. Therefore, we divide the module into five parts, of which the first two will be launched by the in-service LVM3 rocket and the last three will be launched by the new NGLV rocket.

He also added that ISRO hopes BAS can be complementary to other space stations and hopes that the Indian Gaganyaan spacecraft (Gaganyaan, an Indian-developed manned spacecraft, meaning space ship) can communicate with other space stations!

According to the latest planning PPT of the Indian Space Research Organization released by @TirthaChakraba, the Indian space station has been adjusted compared to the size announced in 2019 (TapTechNews note: 25 tons, can accommodate 3 astronauts to stay on orbit for 15-20 days).

The Indian Antariksh space station (BAS) will be designed into 5 modules, including a dome module, with a total mass of up to 52 tons, can accommodate 3-4 astronauts (6 for a short time), operates at an altitude of 400-450 kilometers, with an orbital inclination of 51.5°, and is expected to be put into use in 2035.

In addition, S.Somnath also said that the Chandrayaan-4 lunar sampling return mission team has completed the initial work and will proceed to detailed engineering design.

The background work of this mission is very complicated and is currently in progress. We have configured a complex mission consisting of two rockets to carry these modules. Land on the moon, collect samples and then return to the earth. The preliminary work has been completed, and now detailed engineering design is needed.

In December last year, India conducted the landing experiment of the Vikram lunar lander and used the remaining fuel of the Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module to transfer it from the lunar orbit to the earth orbit. This is regarded as a precursor to the lunar sampling return mission and provides more experience for this project.

Regarding the incident that the Boeing Starliner crew was trapped in space, S.Somnath said that this is a very important lesson for ISRO, because the agency is designing a manned spaceflight mission and does not have its own space station to return in case of emergency.

This is an important observation for us. For anyone who is designing a new spaceship, it is a very important lesson that some difficulties are encountered in the first flight. For me, as the Gaganyaan design work unfolds, we need to consider from multiple aspects. For example, what situations may occur... It may be like this or other situations. We consider in this way. How to strengthen the spaceship through design and how to rescue astronauts in other ways when problems occur are topics we need to discuss now.

He also reiterated that the focus of the Indian Space Research Organization is to perfectly execute the Gaganyaan flight mission and needs to conduct more tests than any other launch.

Gaganyaan is a long and difficult challenge. We are cracking every difficulty every day. We are striving to complete the management tasks and the technical implementation tasks, and it also poses challenges in terms of the number of tests. Compared to ordinary launch vehicles, the number of tests will be very large because we need to meet such requirements before qualification.

In addition to the Indian Space Research Organization, the entire process is also supervised by other committees. Before authorizing anyone to fly, the committee will strictly review its reliability and conduct manual rating and high-level reliability rating. So we must execute the mission without any flaws, and currently all these are going smoothly.

He also mentioned: Although there is a little delay in time, we are not worried. This mission will be flawless and can even safely send the head of state into space.

He emphasized: Everyone's life is precious, so it (Gaganyaan) should be designed for this (safe enough for the head of state to enter the space).