Gaganyaan Mission

Gaganyaan is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to send 3 astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2022, as a part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Projects. The projects aims at sending the astronauts to the lower orbit of the earth and the spacecraft will have a capsule with adequate supply of oxygen and other essential materials and facilities for the Gagan Yatris. ISRO will perform four biological and two physical science experiments related to micro-gravity during the Gaganyaan Mission.

Significance of Gaganyaan Mission:

i. Boost to Industries:- The Indian industry will find large opportunities the participation in the Space Missions. Gaganyaan mission is expected to source nearly 60% of its equipment from the Indian private sector.

ii. Employment:- The space organisation would need an additional manpower of 900. Gaganyaan mission would create 15,000 new employment opportunities. It is expected to generate employment and train human resources in advanced technologies.

iii. Technology development:- Human space flight are frontier field in science and technology. Human spaceflight programme will provide a uniform platform in the space for conducting experiments and test bed for future technologies.

iv. Boost to research:- It will boost good research and technology development with a large number of researchers with proper equipment involved, it will thrust significant research in areas such as materials processing, astro-biology, resource mining, planetary chemistry, planetary orbital calculus and many other areas.

v. Motivation:- human space flight will provide that inspiration to the youth and also the national public. It will inspire a large number of young students to take up science and technology careers for national development.

vi. Prestige:- India will be 4^th country to launch human space mission. The Gaganyaan will not only bring about prestige to the nation but also establish India’s role as a key player in the space industry.

vii. Challenges:- A manned space mission is very different from all other mission that ISRO has so far completed. In terms of complexity and ambition, even the mission to the moon (Chandrayaan) and Mars (Mangalyaan) are nowhere in comparison.

For a manned mission, the key distinguishing capabilities that ISRO has had to develop:-

i. The ability to bring the spacecraft back to Earth after flight

ii. To built a spacecraft in which astronauts can live in Earth like conditions in space

iii. To build a crew escape system to prepare for any emergency from the launch phase onwards and ensure the relativity of a system.

Conclusions:-

Gaganyaan’s success will put India into the elite club of space superpowers. It will help Indian to put a step forward in developing its own space station. It is important to overcome the technological challenges to ensure a safe, successful manned space mission.